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+The Project Gutenberg EBook of In the Mahdi's Grasp, by George Manville Fenn
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+Title: In the Mahdi's Grasp
+
+Author: George Manville Fenn
+
+Illustrator: Lancelot Speed
+
+Release Date: March 28, 2008 [EBook #24926]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ASCII
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK IN THE MAHDI'S GRASP ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Nick Hodson of London, England
+
+
+
+
+In the Mahdi's Grasp, by George Manville Fenn.
+
+________________________________________________________________________
+
+A young army officer has been captured during the wars in Soudan, and is
+being held as a slave in the stronghold of the Mahdi.  For years it had
+been thought that he was dead.  His friends in London decide to go and
+try to rescue him.  One of them is a well-known and proficient surgeon.
+They arrive in Cairo, and proceed on down into the Soudan, where they
+get in contact with an influential Sheikh.  They establish themselves by
+doing many cures, where it is possible, and gradually work themselves
+nearer and nearer to the place where they estimate the missing Harry to
+be.  Eventually they are able to make contact.  Harry breaks his own arm
+in order to be brought to the surgeon, or Hakim, for a cure.
+
+Eventually they are able to escape with him, but to do so they have to
+run right through a battle.  They had brought out with them a personal
+manservant, at his own request, and he had been in a semi-disguise, by
+staining the skin a very deep colour.  This very nearly results in his
+being killed on the battlefield through which they are escaping.
+
+An informative book, quite a long one, in a good Manville Fenn style,
+which is well-known for sustained tension.
+
+________________________________________________________________________
+
+IN THE MAHDI'S GRASP, BY GEORGE MANVILLE FENN.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER ONE.
+
+IN WIMPOLE STREET.
+
+Sam--or, as he liked to be called, "Mr Samuel," or "Mr Downes,"
+holding as he did the important post of confidential and body-servant to
+Dr Robert Morris, a position which made it necessary for him to open
+the door to patients and usher them into the consulting-room, and upon
+particular occasions be called in to help with a visitor who had turned
+faint about nothing--"a poor plucked 'un," as he termed him--
+
+To begin again:--
+
+Sam, who was in his best black and stiffest white tie, consequent upon
+"the doctor" having company to dinner that evening, had just come out of
+the dining-room of the dingy house in Wimpole Street, carrying a
+mahogany tray full of dish covers, when cook opened the glass door at
+the top of the kitchen stairs, thrust her head into the hall, looked
+eagerly at Sam, as she stood fanning her superheated face with her
+apron, and said--
+
+"Well?"
+
+There was a folding pair of trestles standing ready, and Sam placed the
+tray upon them, raised a white damask napkin from where it hung over his
+arm, and was about to wipe his perspiring forehead with it, when cook
+exclaimed sharply--
+
+"Sam!"
+
+"Forgot," said that gentleman, and he replaced the napkin upon his arm
+and took out a clean pocket-handkerchief, did what was necessary, and
+then repeated cook's word--
+
+"Well?"
+
+"Did they say anything about the veal cutlets?"
+
+"No," said Sam, shaking his head.
+
+"Nor yet about the curry?"
+
+"No.  And they didn't say a word about the soup, nor half a word about
+the fish."
+
+"My chycest gravy soup, _ar lar prin temps_" said cook bitterly, "and
+_filly de sole mater de hotel_.  One might just as well be cutting chaff
+for horses.  I don't see any use in toiling and moiling over the things
+as I do.  Mr Landon's just as bad as master, every bit.  I don't
+believe either of 'em's got a bit o' taste.  Hot as everything was,
+too!"
+
+"Spesherly the plates," said Sam solemnly.  "Burnt one of my fingers
+when the napkin slipped."
+
+"Then you should have took care.  What's a dinner unless the plates and
+dishes are hot?"
+
+"What, indeed?" said Sam; "but they don't take no notice of anything.
+My plate looked lovely, you could see your face out o' shape in every
+spoon; and I don't believe they even saw the eighteen-pen'orth o'
+flowers on the table."
+
+"Savages! that's what they are," said cook.  "But they did eat the
+things."
+
+"Yes, they pecked at 'em, but they was talking all the time."
+
+"About my cooking?"
+
+"Not they!  The doctor was talking about a surgical case he had been to
+see at the hospital.  Something about a soldier as had been walking
+about for three years with a bit of broken spear stuck in him out in the
+Soudan."
+
+"Ugh!" grunted cook, with a shudder of disgust.  "That was over the veal
+cutlets," said Sam thoughtfully.
+
+"And what did Mr Landon say?  He ought to have known better than to
+talk about such 'orrid stuff over his meals."
+
+"Him?" said Sam, with a grin of contempt; "why, he's worse than master."
+
+"He couldn't be, Sam."
+
+"Couldn't?  But he is.  Master does talk about live people as he does
+good to.  Mr Landon don't.  He began over the curry."
+
+"Made with best curry paste too, and with scraped cocoanut, a squeeze of
+lemon, a toemarter, and some slices of apple in, just as old Colonel
+Cartelow taught me hisself.  Talk about throwing pearls!  And pray what
+did Mr Landon talk about?"
+
+"Mummies."
+
+"Ugh!" ejaculated cook.  "I saw some of 'em once, at the British Museum;
+but never no more!  The idea of bringing a mummy on to a dinner-table!"
+
+"Ah," said Sam, "it's a good job, old lady, that you don't hear all that
+I do."
+
+"So I suppose," said cook, with a snort.  "And he calls hisself a
+professor!"
+
+"No, no, he don't, old lady.  It's other people calls him a professor,
+and I suppose he is a very clever man."
+
+"I don't hold with such clever people.  I like folks as are clever
+enough to understand good cooking.  Professor, indeed!  I should like to
+professor him!"
+
+"Well, master's no better," said Sam.  "Look at the trouble I have with
+him to keep him decent.  If I didn't watch him he'd put on anything.  I
+can't even keep a book out of his hand when I'm cutting his hair.  Only
+yesterday he gives a duck down to cut the leaf of his book just at an
+awk'ard moment, and of course in goes the point of the scissors."
+
+"Serve him right!" said cook.
+
+"And what do you think he said?"
+
+"Oh, don't ask me."
+
+"Nothing; and I dabbed the place and put a bit o' black court-plaister
+on his ear, and I don't hardly believe he even knew of it."
+
+"I'm not surprised," said cook indignantly.  "Them two read and read
+till they're a pair of regular old scribums.  Anyone would think they
+were old ancient men instead of being--How old is master?"
+
+"Six years older than me."
+
+"And you're six-and-twenty."
+
+"Yes."
+
+"And a fine, handsome man too."
+
+"Thankye, cook," said Sam, smiling.
+
+"Get out!  I don't mean you.  Master.  How old's the professor?"
+
+"Oh, he's thirty-five," said Sam, in rather a disappointed tone.
+
+"And looks it," said cook.  "Well, I wish he'd go abroad again to his
+nasty grave-digging in the sands, and then praps master would have
+decent people to dine with him.  Oh!  There's the front bell."
+
+Cook dived down into the lower regions, and Sam opened the folding inner
+doors to go and answer the street door bell, frowning the while.
+
+"Wanted for some patient," he muttered sourly.  "I do wish people would
+have their accidents at decent times."
+
+
+
+CHAPTER TWO.
+
+"NEWS!  NEWS!"
+
+On the other side of the dining-room door Doctor Morris, a
+thoughtful-looking man of goodly presence, and the better looking for a
+calm ignorance of his being handsome, was seated opposite to his thin,
+yellow-skinned, and rather withered, nervous-looking old college friend,
+both partaking slowly of the good things the doctor's domestic had
+prepared for them, as if it came perfectly natural to them to follow out
+the proverbial words of the old Greek philosopher who bade his pupils,
+"Live not to eat, but eat to live."
+
+As Sam had truthfully said, they had been talking very learnedly about
+their investigations in the particular branches of science which they
+had followed up since their old school and college days when they had
+begun their friendship, in company with another companion, missing now;
+and the doctor had said, with a far-off look in his large dark eyes--
+
+"No, Fred, old chap, I don't want to settle down here yet, because I
+know how it will be.  Once I regularly begin, the practice will
+completely swallow me, as it did the dear old dad.  People came from far
+and wide to be treated by him, and he had hardly an hour to call his
+own.  Of course I shall be glad to do the same, for it's a duty to one's
+fellow-creatures; but I want to leave it all to old Stanley for another
+two or three years while I travel and see more of the world.  I should
+like to go with some army if I could."
+
+"Yes," said his guest, "I see; as a volunteer surgeon."
+
+"Exactly; the experience and confidence I should gain would be so great.
+After that, here is my place, and I could relieve Stanley till he
+retires, which he says he shall do as soon as I like to take the old
+practice fully in hand."
+
+"Hah!  Yes, Bob," said the visitor.  "There's nothing like travel--
+seeing foreign countries, with some special pursuit to follow.  I'm like
+a fish out of water now, with all this trouble in Egypt.  Oh, hang the
+Khalifa, or Mahdi, or whatever they call him!"
+
+"That's what a good many people would like to do," said the doctor
+drily.
+
+"Like to?  I should like to do it myself," cried Landon, with his yellow
+face flushing.  "The wretch, the impostor, the cruel, heartless brute!
+Poor Harry Frere! as handsome, manly, true-hearted a gentleman as ever
+breathed."
+
+"Hah, yes!" said the doctor, sighing.  "Don't talk about it, old fellow.
+It makes me miserable every night as it is."
+
+"Miserable?  Yes, for if ever friend was like a brother poor old Harry
+was.  He had only one fault in him, and that was his blind faith and
+belief in poor Gordon."
+
+"Fault?"
+
+"No, no, not fault.  You know what I mean; but it is so pitiful to think
+of.  Only the other day we gave him that dinner on his appointment to
+his regiment in the Egyptian army, and he is off to Cairo.  Then the
+next thing is that he goes on the expedition to join Gordon up the
+country."
+
+"And the next news," said the doctor sadly, "is that he and all with him
+have been massacred, fighting in poor Gordon's defence."
+
+"Horrible!  Horrible!" said Landon passionately.  "So bright, so brave a
+lad, with, in the ordinary course, a good manly career of fifty years
+before him."
+
+"Think there is any possibility of his having escaped after all?" said
+the doctor, after a pause.
+
+"Not a bit, poor lad.  I was red-hot to go up the country somehow or
+other last year when I was about to investigate those buried tombs of
+the Ra Sa dynasty.  I wanted to give up the search for those mummies and
+the stores of old incised inscriptions."
+
+"Yes, and you applied for permission," said the doctor.
+
+"Like an idiot," said Landon angrily, "instead of keeping my own counsel
+and going without saying a word.  I might have found poor old Hal a
+prisoner, or a slave, or something.  But what did the authorities say?"
+
+"That they were quite convinced that there were no survivors of the last
+expedition, and that they must debar your proceeding up the country."
+
+"Debar!" cried Landon, with a peculiar laugh.  "Splendid word for it.
+Bar, indeed!  Yes, and they politely bundled me out of the country just
+when I was on the scent of some of the most wonderful discoveries ever
+made, connected with the ancient Egyptian civilisation."
+
+"You must wait a few years, and when the country is settled try again."
+
+"I was willing to give up further researches then, but they wouldn't let
+me go in search of poor Harry."
+
+"Their belief was that the attempt would be fatal."
+
+"But they did not know; I was the best judge of that.  See what a
+knowledge I have of the people and their language.  I believe I could
+have gone anywhere."
+
+"That was young Frank's belief."
+
+"Yes, but that was different.  The boy did not know what he was talking
+about.  He'd have been murdered before he had gone fifty miles up the
+country."
+
+"It was very brave and true of him, though."
+
+"Of course," said Landon, "and I should have risked taking him with me
+if I could have obtained permission.  But perhaps it was better that he
+should stick to his chemistry."
+
+"Yes," said the doctor, with a sigh, "and that you should have been sent
+home."
+
+"Nonsense!  I say it was a disgraceful thing that a scientist like
+myself should be so treated."
+
+"But the result is that Harry's brother is safe at home, Fred, and that
+I have not lost another companion."
+
+The doctor stretched out his hand to his rather excitable friend, who
+grasped it directly.
+
+"That's very good of you, Bob, old fellow.  Thank you; but I felt it
+bitterly not being allowed to go in search of poor Harry."
+
+"Yes, but so did Frank."
+
+"Of course, poor boy.  He would.  Ah, well, I tried my best.  I feel it,
+though, and I am very miserable doing my work in the museum instead of
+in Egypt amongst the sand.  I suppose the upper country will become
+settled again."
+
+"Sure to," said the doctor, "and in the meantime why don't you go and
+try Nineveh or Babylon?"
+
+"No; I can't take up an entirely fresh rut.  I must give years upon
+years yet to the sand-buried cities and tombs of Egypt.  Ah! what an
+endless mine of wonders it is."
+
+"Yes, I suppose so."
+
+"With everything so preserved by the drifting sand."
+
+"But the ruins of the Tigris and Euphrates must be equally interesting."
+
+"They can't be."
+
+"But look here: you can't go to Egypt now, and you could to Nineveh.
+Have a trip there, and I'll go with you."
+
+"You will, Bob?" cried Landon excitedly.
+
+"I will, Fred, on my word."
+
+"Then we will, Bob," said the professor enthusiastically.  "We'll start
+and--No, we won't.  Egypt is my motto, and much as I should like to have
+you for a companion, no, sir, no.  As the old woman said, `Wild horses
+sha'n't drag me from my original plans and unfinished work.'  I must get
+back to the sand.  I'd give anything to be there digging."
+
+"Humph!" ejaculated the doctor.  "After all, it is a nasty, ghoulish
+business: moleing in the old tombs and unrolling mummies."
+
+"It may seem so to you, but to me it is intensely interesting.  Besides,
+much as you condemn it, this is the only way to find out the history--
+the manners and customs of the people two and three thousand years ago."
+
+"The bell!" exclaimed the doctor.  "I hope no poor creature wants me
+to-night."
+
+"So do I," said Landon, "for my own sake as well as for his or hers.  I
+wanted a long chat with you as soon as this tiresome dinner is at an
+end."
+
+"Hark," said the doctor.  "Some one has come in.  Yes, I'm wanted, and--
+Hullo, Frank, my dear boy, how are you?" he cried, as a youthful-looking
+young man, who appeared flushed and excited, threw open the door without
+waiting to be announced, and strode in, to nod to first one and then the
+other.
+
+"Why, there is something the matter!" said the doctor quickly.  "You
+want to see me?"
+
+"To see you?  Yes, of course," said the young man shaking hands
+hurriedly.  "No, no, not professionally.  I hurried on to Old Bones, but
+the servant said he had come to dine with you, so I jumped into a cab
+and made the fellow canter here."
+
+"Then you have come for a snack with us.  Wish I'd known, and we'd have
+waited.  Sit down, my lad.  Why didn't you come sooner?"
+
+"Dinner?" cried the young man, ignoring the chair, and beginning to
+stride up and down the room, swinging his arms excitedly; "don't talk to
+me about dinner!"
+
+"Very well, little man," said the professor, smiling; "but don't jump
+quite out of your skin."
+
+The newcomer turned upon the speaker sharply, and stopping short stood
+pointing at him.
+
+"Hark at that fellow, doctor," he cried.  "That's Old Bones all over.
+He's as cool as one of his dry mummies.  Why, my news is enough to make
+any fellow with a heart jump out of his skin!"
+
+"Sit still, Bob," said the professor quietly; "the boy has made a
+discovery."
+
+"Yes, a discovery," cried the newcomer--"a discovery!" and he brought
+his hand down so heavily upon the dining table that the glasses jumped.
+
+"That's it," said the professor; "metaphorically speaking, he has been
+pouring sulphuric acid upon the carbonate of lime of his composition,
+and all this effervescence is the consequence.  He'll be better soon.
+Now, Frank, boy, what is the discovery--something that will set the
+Thames on fire?"
+
+"Have you got a good appointment as chemist, Frank?" said the doctor.
+
+"Discovery--appointment!" cried the young man, with his voice breaking
+from the emotion he felt.  "Something a thousand times better than
+either of those.  It's the news of news, I tell you--Hal!"
+
+His two hearers sprang to their feet and rushed at him excitedly, each
+seizing a hand.
+
+"What about him?" cried the doctor.
+
+"Not dead?" shouted the professor.
+
+"No--no--no!" cried the young man wildly, and then his voice thoroughly
+broke, becoming almost inaudible as he tried to declare his news.
+
+"I can't bear it," he panted; "I can't bear it.  Morris--Landon--don't
+take any notice of me--I've kept all this in for days, and now--now--Oh,
+tell me--is it true, or am I going mad?"
+
+The young man sank heavily into the chair to which his friends helped
+him, and then he lay back quivering, with his hands covering his face,
+while the doctor made a sign to his companion and went hurriedly into
+his consulting-room, where he turned up the gas and then opened a
+cabinet, from which he took down a stoppered bottle and a graduated
+glass, into which he carefully measured a small portion, half filled the
+glass from a table filter, and then hurried back into the dining-room.
+
+"Drink this, Frank, my boy," he said.
+
+"No, no; let me be.  I shall soon come round."
+
+"Drink this, my lad," said the doctor sternly; "it is for your good."
+
+The young man caught the glass from his friend's hand, tossed down the
+contents, shuddered, and then drew a deep breath, pulling himself
+together directly.
+
+"I'm better now," he said.  "It has all been such a shock, and I've been
+travelling night and day."
+
+"Where from?" said the doctor, so as to give the young fellow time for
+the medicine to produce its effect.
+
+"Berlin," was the reply.
+
+"Berlin?  That accounts for it.  I was wondering why you had not been
+here.  I thought you were in Paris about some mineral business."
+
+"I was there, but I heard some news about--about poor Hal."
+
+"Indeed?" said the professor, growing excited now.
+
+"Yes, it was from a gentleman who had escaped out of Khartoum."
+
+"Go on, my lad; go on," said Morris.
+
+"Yes, yes, I can go on now," said the young man calmly.  "Don't think
+any more about what I said."
+
+"No, no, of course not, Frank, my lad," said the doctor; "but pray speak
+out.  Landon and I are suffering pain."
+
+"Of course, and I've travelled night and day as I told you, so as to
+bring you the news myself.  This German gentleman has been a prisoner
+ever since Khartoum was taken by the Mahdi, and only managed to get out
+of the place in disguise six months ago."
+
+"Yes, yes," said the doctor excitedly, and the professor took up a
+carafe and made it rattle against a glass as he hurriedly poured out
+some water and drank it with avidity.
+
+"He knew poor old Hal well by sight, and spoke to him twice, and heard
+who he was.  He was alive, and seemed to be well the last time this
+gentleman saw him; but he was a miserable slave in irons without the
+slightest prospect of getting away."
+
+"Hah!" exclaimed the doctor, dropping into a chair and beginning to wipe
+his forehead.
+
+"Oh!" groaned the professor, sinking back in his chair, but only to
+become excited directly after, as he turned upon the bearer of the news.
+
+"But he's alive, Frank, boy! he's alive!" he cried, in a peculiarly
+altered voice.
+
+"Yes, thank Heaven!" said Frank Frere softly; "he is alive."
+
+No one spoke for a few moments.  Then the professor began again
+excitedly--
+
+"Look here," he cried, "both of you; that German sausage is a fool!"
+
+The others turned on him with wondering eyes as if they doubted his
+sanity, a notion quite pardonable from his manner of speaking and the
+wild look he had given himself by thrusting both his hands through his
+rather long, shaggy black hair, and making it stand up on end.
+
+"Well," he said sharply, "what are you two staring at?"
+
+"Well, Fred," said the doctor smiling, "I suppose it was at you."
+
+"And pray why were you staring in that peculiar way at me?  Here, you
+answer--you, Frank."
+
+"I was staring on account of the sausage," said the young man, sinking
+back in his chair and laughing aloud.
+
+"Here, Bob," said the professor excitedly, "what have you been giving
+this fellow--ether?  It's too strong for him.  Got on his nerves."
+
+"Nonsense," said the doctor, joining softly in their young friend's
+mirth.  "What makes you think that?"
+
+"Why, you heard.  He doesn't know what he's talking about--staring on
+account of the sausage!"
+
+"Well, that's why I was looking at you so hard."
+
+The professor stared now in turn, passed one hand across his forehead,
+stared again, and then said gravely--
+
+"I say, you two, has this glorious news sent you both out of your
+minds?"
+
+"No," cried both heartily.  "It only sounded so comical and so different
+from your ordinary way," continued the younger man, "when you called my
+German friend a sausage."
+
+The professor's face was so full of perplexity that in the reaction
+after the pain of the sudden good news, his friends began to laugh
+again, making the clever scientist turn his eyes inquiringly upon the
+doctor.
+
+"Well, it's a fact," said the latter.  "You did."
+
+"What!" cried the professor indignantly.  "That I didn't!  I said that
+German gentleman was a fool."
+
+"No, no, no," cried Frank, half hysterically.  "You said sausage."
+
+"Frank, you don't know what you're talking about."
+
+"Yes, I do," cried the young man.  "Sausage, sausage, sausage."
+
+The professor drew lines horizontally across his forehead from his
+eyebrows to the roots of his hair, and shook his head slowly and
+piteously at the speaker.
+
+"Well, really, Fred, old fellow," said the doctor, "I must take Frank's
+part.  You certainly did say sausage.  I suppose it was suggested by the
+common association of the two words, German sausage."
+
+"Humph!" ejaculated the professor slowly; "suppose then I must.  German
+silver--German band--German tinder--German sausage.  But I meant to say
+German gentleman, upon my word."
+
+"Nobody doubts you," said Frank; "but why did you call him a fool?"
+
+"Oh! for saying that Harry couldn't escape.  Do you both mean to tell me
+that an Englishman, and such an Englishman as our Harry Frere, couldn't
+do what a German has done?"
+
+"I don't," said the doctor, bringing his fist down upon the table.
+"Come, Franky, lad, what have you to say to that?"
+
+"Hah!" sighed the young man sadly, "it is easily accounted for.  My
+German friend managed to gain the confidence of the Khalifa from his
+knowledge of Arabic, and was freed from the chains he first wore.  Poor
+Harry was wearing heavy irons up to the day when my new friend left."
+
+"Oh!" groaned the professor, "that's bad, that's bad.  Frank, boy, I beg
+your German friend's pardon.  He isn't a--"
+
+"Sausage!" put in the doctor quickly.
+
+"A fool," said the professor, shaking his fist playfully at his old
+school-fellow.  "Well, I feel ten years younger than I did half an hour
+ago, and this settles it at once."
+
+"Settles what?" said the doctor.
+
+"Settles what!" cried the professor, in a tone full of mock disgust.
+"Hark at him, Frank!  Settles this, sir," he continued, flashing his
+fierce eyes upon the doctor, clenching his fist menacingly, and shaking
+his shaggy hair.  "I'm off back to Egypt as soon as ever I can get a
+berth in a steamer, and then I'm going right up the country with tools
+in every pocket on purpose to file off those chains."
+
+"Bravo! bravo!" shouted the other two.
+
+"An Englishman in chains," continued the professor, gesticulating like
+an orator, though as a rule he was one of the quietest of men, "and of
+all Englishmen in the world, our Harry, the merriest school-fellow, the
+heartiest undergrad, and the truest friend!"
+
+"And brother," said Frank softly.
+
+"Yes," cried the professor excitedly, "and brother, that man ever had.
+The brother we three have mourned as dead for years, but who lives--as a
+slave."
+
+"Britons never shall be slaves," cried the doctor solemnly.
+
+"Never!" said Frank through his teeth, and with a look of stern
+determination in his eyes which meant more than words could have
+expressed.
+
+"Never!" cried the professor, bringing his fist down with such a crash
+that this time a large goblet leaped off the table, was smashed upon the
+floor, and the next moment the door was thrown open and Sam, the
+doctor's butler, as he called himself, looking white with anxiety,
+rushed into the room, to stand staring wildly from one to the other.
+
+This quelled the professor's excitement at once, and he dropped back in
+his chair and began mopping his face.
+
+"What's the matter, Samuel?" said the doctor sternly.
+
+"That's what I've come to see, sir," cried the man piteously.  "I did
+stop in the hall, sir, in aggynies, waiting to know.  First in comes Mr
+Frank when I opens the door to him and hits me in the chest hard, just
+like a patient as has got rid of the strait w.  Into the dining-room he
+bangs, before I could announce him, and without a bit o' pollergy, slams
+the door after him.  Then master goes into his consulting-room in a
+hurry and comes back with a something to exhibit, looking as he always
+do when there's anything serious on; and ever since it's been getting
+worse and worse, and you never rung for me, sir.  Fancy my feelings,
+sir!  First s'posing as it was fits with Mr Frank, sir; then it seemed
+to be you, sir; and then the professor went on, having it worse than
+either of you, sir, till it got to the smashing of my glass, and I
+couldn't bear it no longer."
+
+"No, no, of course you couldn't, Sam," cried Frank; "and you must know
+at once.  It's news, Sam--glorious news--the best of news.  My brother
+is alive after all!"
+
+"What!" cried the man.  "Mr Harry, sir?"
+
+"Yes, alive, Sam--alive!"
+
+"What, him as was dead, sir?"
+
+"Yes, alive, I tell you."
+
+"What, him as was killed out in the Soudan--our Mr Harry, sir, as we
+give the dinner to in this very room, when he made that speech as I
+stood and heared to the very end?"
+
+"Yes, Sam; yes, yes!" cried Frank, as excited now as the man, who now
+dashed at him and seized him by the hand and shook it with all his
+might.
+
+"Then--then--then," he cried.  "Oh, Mr Frank--oh, Mr Frank--oh, Mr
+Frank!"
+
+Dropping the young man's hand, he seized the professor's and shook at
+that for a few moments, before rushing at his master's, to pump that
+wildly up and down before dashing to the door, flinging it open, and
+yelling--
+
+"Here! hi! cook!  Mary! everyone!  He isn't dead after all.  Hooray!
+hooray! hoo--"
+
+From a tremendous emphasis and sonorous roar over the first hurrah, Sam
+made a rapid diminuendo to the first syllable of the last, which trailed
+off and would have died away but for Frank, who, touched by the man's
+show of devotion, finished it heartily, and led off with another cheer,
+in which the others joined, the shouts having an accompaniment in the
+pattering of feet upon the floor-cloth of the hall.
+
+Sam's fit of exaltation was over, and he stood shamefaced and troubled,
+wiping his damp hands upon the white napkin.
+
+"I beg your pardon, sir," he said humbly.  "You see, I knowed Mr Harry
+so well.  He was always such a gentleman to me, and it was such an upset
+when he died that--that now he's come to life again, sir, it seemed like
+making a man forget himself, sir, and--"
+
+"Show that he felt a genuine attachment to our very dear friend,
+Samuel," said the doctor quietly.  "Thank you.  My friends thank you
+too, for we know it was all perfectly sincere."
+
+"Hah!" said the professor, as the door closed.  "I always liked your
+Sam, though as a bit of a linguist I must say that sometimes his use of
+the Queen's English does rather jar upon my feelings."
+
+"But his heart's in the right place," said Frank warmly.
+
+"And a good heart too.  But as we were saying when he burst into the
+room, Britons never shall be slaves, and I'm going back to Egypt after
+all to file off those chains."
+
+"That's right," said the doctor warmly, "and just what I knew you would
+say.  You are a man, Fred, who has found out things that have puzzled a
+good many--"
+
+"Better ones," said the professor modestly.  "Well, I have."
+
+"And you've made out many an Egyptian hieroglyphic in your time."
+
+"Yes, and I hope to find out more," said the professor.
+
+"And will," cried Frank.
+
+"But," said the doctor, "you are forbidden to go up the country--by the
+English and Egyptian authorities; and the Soudan is in the power of a
+savage and cruel impostor, who vows death to the white.  How are you
+going up there to use those files?"
+
+"Hah!" said the professor gravely; "whenever I have a difficult problem
+to solve I always put on my old red fez and have a thorough good think,
+and then the way seems to come."
+
+"Yes," said the doctor, while Frank listened eagerly to what was said,
+"but--"
+
+"Yes, but--" said the professor, taking him up sharply.  "We've got our
+news, thank Heaven! and that's enough for to-night."
+
+"And you can't put on your old red fez," said Frank, "because--"
+
+"Exactly," said the professor; "because it is at my rooms in Fountain
+Court."
+
+
+
+CHAPTER THREE.
+
+PERFECTLY SANE.
+
+"Good morning, Frank, my lad," said Doctor Morris, shaking hands upon
+the young man entering his study.  "Ready for business?"
+
+"Ready, yes," was the reply, made with feverish haste.  "Am I late?"
+
+"Late?  No," said the doctor, glancing at the clock on the study
+mantelpiece.  "Half an hour before the time."
+
+"Oh, nonsense; that thing's wrong.  Ever so much slow."
+
+"Don't you insult my clock, my boy," said the doctor.  "It keeps as good
+time as any one in London.  It's you who are too fast.  Keep cool, my
+lad, keep cool."
+
+"Who can keep cool at a time like this?" said Frank impatiently.
+
+"You, if you try.  Surgeons have to.  Important work requires cool
+heads."
+
+"I'll try," said Frank briefly.
+
+"Fred Landon was right last night in putting matters off till this
+morning, so that we could all have a good night's rest."
+
+Frank looked quickly up at his brother's old school-fellow with
+something like envy, as he sat there softly stroking the great, dark
+brown beard, which flowed pretty well all over the breast of the heavy
+blue dressing-gown, tied with thick silk cords about his waist, and
+thought what a fine-looking specimen of humanity he was; while the
+doctor at the same time scanned the rather thin, anxious face before him
+and mused to himself--
+
+"Poor Frank! the boy looks pulled down and careworn, and this has
+completely upset him.  I must take him in hand a bit.  He has been
+working too hard, too, over his chemistry."
+
+Just then their eyes met, and Frank coloured a little, as if
+self-conscious.
+
+"I was afraid Landon would be here first," he said hurriedly, "and that
+you would both be waiting for me."
+
+"You ought to have known him better," said the doctor, laughing.  "Fred
+Landon never is first at any meeting.  I always allow him an hour's
+latitude."
+
+"Oh, surely he will not be late this morning?" cried Frank anxiously.
+
+"I hope not; but he may be.  Of course he meant to be punctual, and I
+have no doubt he got up and breakfasted extra early; but anything takes
+off his attention--a book, a drawing, a note about Egypt--and he forgets
+everything else.  You should have called in the Temple this morning and
+brought him on."
+
+"Of course!  I didn't think of that.  Here, I'll go and fetch him at
+once."
+
+"No, no; give him time.  Perhaps he will have been thinking so seriously
+about poor Harry, that for once he will be punctual."
+
+"Here he is!" cried Frank excitedly, as a thundering knock was heard at
+the front door, and he sprang up in his anxiety to go and open to their
+friend himself.
+
+"No, no; don't do that," cried the doctor, smiling.  "Sam would be
+disgusted."
+
+"Oh, I can't stop to think about Sam's feelings now," cried Frank
+hurriedly.
+
+"But you must keep cool.  Look here, Frank, you are eighteen, and pretty
+well a man grown."
+
+"What has that to do with it?" said the lad impatiently.
+
+"Only this," said the doctor gravely; "we want manly action now, and you
+are as impatient as a boy of twelve."
+
+At that moment the professor entered the room, hooked stick in hand, and
+with his hat on, closely followed by the doctor's man, who stood with
+one hand held out and a puzzled look on his face, staring at the
+visitor, whose dress looked shabby and aspect wild, the want of what
+fashionable young men term "well grooming"--to wit, shaving,
+hair-cutting, and shampooing--making him appear ten years older than his
+real age.
+
+"Good morning, dear boys," he said, shaking hands warmly, and without
+taking off his hat.  "Well, what is it?"
+
+He turned sharply upon Sam as he spoke.
+
+"Your hat, sir," said the man hesitatingly.
+
+"Well, what about it?  It's mine, isn't it?"
+
+"Yes, sir; of course, sir.  I thought you'd like me to take it and hang
+it up."
+
+"Then you thought wrong," said the professor, and he so thoroughly
+stared Sam out of countenance, that the man shrank from the fierce frown
+and backed out of the room.
+
+"Just as if a man can't do as he likes with his own hat," said the
+professor, with his face relaxing, as he crossed to one of the easy
+chairs, wheeled it forward, sat down, and then slipped off his hat,
+thrust his hand inside, whisked something out, and placed hat and stick
+under the table, before, with a good deal of flourish, he drew a very
+dingy-looking old scarlet fez over his starting black hair, with the big
+blue silk tassels hanging down behind, and settled himself comfortably
+by drawing up first one and then the other leg across and beneath him,
+_a la turque_.
+
+"There," he said, with a pleasant smile.  "This chair isn't so
+comfortable as the sand of the desert, but I must make it do.  Now I'm
+ready for business.  What's the first thing to be done?"
+
+"To make arrangements for your start at once," said Frank sharply.  "You
+will sail for Egypt, and make your preparations for going up the
+country, and I shall go with you."
+
+"Oh, you've settled that, have you?" said the professor, turning upon
+the speaker, and pulling the fez a little more tightly on, for his stiff
+hair had a disposition to thrust it off.  "You two have been busy then,
+eh, Bob?"
+
+"Certainly not," said the doctor; "not a word has been said of this
+before."
+
+"That's right," said the professor.  "Are you aware of what it will
+cost, Frank?"
+
+"No.  A good deal, no doubt; but I have all that money to come when I am
+of age, and there is Harry's.  There ought to be no difficulty about the
+executors advancing what is required."
+
+"Bob and your humble servant being the said executors," said the
+professor.  "Of course not; but I did not mean money, Frank, I meant
+life.  It would cost yours."
+
+"Well, I am ready to spend it," said the youth warmly, "so long as I can
+save my brother's."
+
+"Hah!" sighed the doctor.
+
+"That's very nicely spoken, Frank," said the professor, leaning forward
+to pat the young fellow on the arm, "but it's all sentiment."
+
+"Sentiment?"
+
+"Yes, and we want hard, matter-of-fact stuff.  Now look at me."
+
+"Well, I am looking at you," said Frank, half angrily.
+
+"What do I look like?"
+
+"Do you want the truth?"
+
+"Of course, my boy."
+
+"Well, you look like a Turk hard up in London, who has bought a
+second-hand suit of English clothes that don't fit him."
+
+The doctor threw himself back and roared with laughter, while the
+professor joined silently in the mirth and then sat wiping his eyes, not
+in the least offended.
+
+"Well done, Frank!" he said.  "You've hit the bull's-eye, boy.  That's
+exactly how I do look; and if I went to Cairo and put on a haik and
+burnoose, and a few rolls of muslin round this fez, speaking Arabic as I
+do, and a couple of the Soudan dialects, I could go anywhere with a
+camel unquestioned.  While as for you, my dear boy, you couldn't go a
+mile.  You'd be a Christian dog that every man would consider it his
+duty to kill."
+
+"I must risk that," said Frank stubbornly.
+
+"Must you?" said the professor.  "What do you say, Bob?"
+
+"I say it would be madness," replied the doctor emphatically.
+
+"Stick--stark--staring madness," said the professor.  "I, who have been
+out there for years, and who can be quite at home with the people,
+should have hard work to get through by the skin of my teeth."
+
+"And you would not get through, Frank," said the doctor decisively.
+"This business must be carried out wisely and well."
+
+"What would you do, then," said Frank impatiently.
+
+"Make application to the Foreign Office at once.  Diplomacy must be set
+to work, and failing that, force."
+
+"Oh!" cried Frank, in a despairing tone; "why, it would take years to
+get that slow machine to work, and all that time wasted in
+correspondence and question and answer, while poor Hal is slaving away
+yonder in chains!  Oh, Morris, what are you thinking about?"
+
+"Acting in the slower and surer way," replied the doctor firmly.  "This
+can only be done with coolness.  We know that Hal is a prisoner out
+yonder, and we must apply to Government to get him free."
+
+"Humph!" ejaculated the professor.
+
+"Hah!" cried Frank.  "You don't agree with this, Landon?"
+
+"Of course not.  Bob Morris is as clever a chap as any in London at
+cutting people to pieces and putting 'em together again; but over
+Egyptian matters he'd be like a baby.  Mine is the plan."
+
+"To get your head cut off," growled the doctor.
+
+"Well, if I did," retorted the professor, "that would beat you.  Clever
+as you are, old chap, you couldn't get that to grow again.  Look here,
+Frank, you side with me.  I'll go at once."
+
+"And take me with you?"
+
+"No, my boy, I--will--not," said the professor decisively.  "Be
+sensible, and take what is really the best way.  I am not bragging when
+I say that I am one of the most likely men living to carry this business
+through."
+
+"Oh, we know that you are not bragging," said the doctor.  "You mean
+right; so does Frank.  And now let me say this.  The first thing last
+night that I thought, was that you, Fred, must go, and that I would go
+with you."
+
+"Impossible," said the professor shortly.
+
+"Yes, I thought it well over, and dearly as I long to go and help poor
+Hal, I am obliged to confess that it would be impossible."
+
+"Hear, hear," said the professor; "just as impossible as for Frank to
+insist upon going with me to stick his head into the lion's mouth, get
+it bitten off, and spoil my plans as well.  Once more, it is impossible
+for either of you two to go; so be sensible and help me to get off, and
+trust me like a brother to help and save our brother in distress."
+
+"I will," said the doctor firmly.  "Now, Frank."
+
+"I won't," cried the youth.
+
+"I ask you as a brother," said the doctor.
+
+"Yes, as a little brother--as a boy whom you look upon as wanting in
+manliness to help at a time like this.  Both of you cry _impossible_.
+I'm much younger than either of you, but surely I've got some brains.
+Always up to now, and it was the same when poor old Hal was with us, you
+three treated me as if I was your equal, and it made me feel older.  But
+now, when there is quite a crisis in my life, and I want to prove to you
+that young as I am I can be manly and help to save our poor Hal from the
+clutches of these savage Arab fiends with their cruelty and slavery, you
+combine to fight against me, and it is impossible--impossible."
+
+"Humph!" grunted the professor, shaking his head at the doctor, who
+shook his in turn.
+
+"You talk too much, Frank, lad," said the latter, in an injured tone.
+"Do be cool, and think a little.  I'm sure you would see then that you
+are wrong.  What we want in this is calm matter-of-fact planning."
+
+"No, we don't," said Frank impatiently; "we want a good plan, of course,
+but we want plenty of pluck and good manly dash.  Impossible, you both
+say, because each of you has his own pet plan, one of you for Government
+interference, the other for going alone in disguise, and consequently
+you combine against me for one of you to carry out his."
+
+"Well, and if you cannot propose a better ought you not to give way to
+us?"
+
+"No," said Frank, "because it would be horrible to settle down here at
+home, thinking of that poor fellow's sufferings.  How do you think I
+could ever get on with any study?  I should go out of my mind."
+
+"But look here, Frank," said the doctor.
+
+"I can't look there," said Frank.  "I can't reason with you two.  I want
+to act; I want to be up and doing, so as to feel that every day I am a
+little nearer getting poor Harry free."
+
+"That's quite reasonable, Bob," said the professor, slowly and
+thoughtfully.  "But I say, Franky, my boy, I don't want to be obstinate;
+I don't want to hinder you if you can suggest a better plan.  We only
+say that so far your ideas are impossible.  Come, now have you any other
+plan?"
+
+"Yes," said the lad excitedly.  "Brother Hal is sitting out there in
+chains, looking longingly year after year for the help that does not
+come, and eating his poor heart out with despair because those to whom
+he should look for help do not come."
+
+"That's all true enough," said the doctor sadly.
+
+"But the question is," said the professor, holding out one hand and
+apparently putting down every word he said with the other: "How--are--
+we--to--help--the--poor--boy?"
+
+"Let's all three go," said Frank hotly.
+
+"Oh!" ejaculated the doctor.
+
+"That's more and more impossible still," cried the professor.
+
+"No, it isn't," cried Frank.  "I have a plan in my head now that would
+answer if it were properly done.  I haven't been out in Egypt like
+Landon here, but ever since poor Hal got his appointment I've read up
+the country till I'm regularly soaked with it."
+
+"Can't be," said the professor, smiling grimly.  "Moisture's too scarce
+when you're away from the Nile.  You may be gritty with it."
+
+"Never mind about that," said Frank.  "I know one or two things about
+the people, and I know this--there is one man who is always welcome
+among them and their sufferers from fever and eye complaints and
+injured, and that is the doctor--the surgeon."
+
+"Eh?" ejaculated the professor sharply, looking up.  "Yes, that's true
+enough, boy."
+
+"Well," said Frank, pointing, "there he is--the Hakim--the learned
+physician and curer of all ills.  Look at him now in that dressing-gown,
+with his big, long beard, and that handsome, calm appearance.  Doesn't
+he look as if he could cure anything?  Just suppose him sitting
+cross-legged in a tent now, with a big white turban on; what would he
+look like then?"
+
+"An impostor!" cried the doctor angrily.  "Frank, the good news has
+swollen your head up till it has cracked."
+
+"That it hasn't," cried the professor sharply, "and you would not look
+like an impostor, sir.  Well done, Franky.  I say he'd look like what he
+is--a splendid specimen of a man, and as good a doctor and surgeon as I
+know of.  Impostor, indeed!  I should be ready to punch the head of any
+scoundrel who dared to say so.  Bravo, my boy!  The great Frankish
+physician--the learned Hakim travelling through the country to perform
+his cures."
+
+"Yes," cried Frank; "and performing them too."
+
+"To be sure," said the professor, growing excited.  "The news of his
+cures would spread through the land, and the people would welcome him,
+and he could go anywhere.  Here, I say, Bob, this plant's coming up."
+
+"You're as bad as Frank," said the doctor angrily.  "You both take my
+breath away.  What! me go masquerading through the Soudan, dressed up as
+a mock doctor?"
+
+"Mock doctor be hanged!" cried the professor; "where's the mockery?  The
+people out there suffer by scores and thousands from eye complaints and
+other evils, and as to the number you meet with who have been chopped
+and speared and shot--why, the place teems with them.  Couldn't you do
+them good?"
+
+"Well, of course I could," said the doctor thoughtfully.  "I should say
+that with antiseptic treatment one's cures would seem almost marvellous
+to the poor wretches."
+
+"Of course they would.  I doctored scores myself when I was out there,"
+said the professor.  "Now, look here; I mean to go out there, of course,
+and I shall take you with me, Bob."
+
+"What!"
+
+"No whatting.  You've got to go; that's settled.  You're the great
+Frankish Hakim, and I'm your interpreter.  You can't speak a word of
+Arabic.  There's no imposture in that, is there?"
+
+"Oh, no; I can't speak a word of Arabic, but as to the doctoring--"
+
+"Look here, Bob; you'd be doing these people good, wouldn't you?"
+
+"Of course."
+
+"Well, then, there's no imposture there.  We'll go right up to Khartoum,
+together with our servants, and get the poor boy away.  That's settled,
+so you had better lay in your stock of ointment-pots, bottles,
+plaisters, and pills."
+
+"Well, I'm beginning to think I'm dreaming," said the doctor.
+
+"But you are not," said the professor, and he turned to Frank, who was
+excitedly listening to all that was said.  "Now then, my boy," he said,
+"we've settled that; but I can't see that by any possibility you could
+come with us."
+
+"I can," said the lad eagerly.  "You talked about having servants with
+you."
+
+"Yes, blacks," said the professor.  "It would not do to take white
+ones."
+
+"Very well, then, I'll go as a black."
+
+The doctor and the professor turned upon the speaker sharply, and fixed
+him with their eyes, as if doubtful about the state of his mind, gazing
+at him in silence, till he laughed merrily.
+
+"I have not lost a slate or tile," he said.  "I am quite what Morris
+calls _compos mentis_."
+
+"No," said the doctor sharply; "I'll be hanged if you can be, Frank, my
+lad."
+
+"And so say I," chimed in the professor.  "How in the world can you go
+as a black?"
+
+"Bah!" cried Frank.
+
+"What does _Baa_! mean?" said the professor.  "Black sheep?"
+
+"Nonsense!  Ask Morris if it would not be as easy as easy to tinge one's
+skin to any depth, from a soft brown to black."
+
+"Won't do," said the professor.  "You'd dye your face, neck, and arms,
+and some time or other you'd be caught bathing."
+
+"Not much chance for bathing out there when we were away from the Nile,
+eh?"
+
+"Well, having a sand-bath; and then they'd see that the rest of your
+skin was white."
+
+"Oh, no, they wouldn't," cried Frank.  "I should do as that amateur did
+who wanted to play Othello properly--black myself all over."
+
+The professor took off his fez, laid it upon his knees, and with both
+hands gave his shaggy hair a vicious rub, which, however, did not
+disorder it in the least, seeing that it was as rough as could be
+before.
+
+"Yes," said the doctor; "he has an answer for all objections, Fred, old
+fellow."
+
+"Yes, yes, yes," cried the professor, putting on his fez again, and
+making a vicious dab at the tassel, which was tickling his neck, but
+subsided quietly between his shoulders after it had done swinging.  "He
+has something to say to everything.  Too much talk.  It wouldn't do.
+The Baggara are as keen as their swords: they'd see through it
+directly."
+
+"Then I'd dye it blacker," said Frank.
+
+"Oh, the colour would be right enough, boy," cried the professor, "but
+that's what would let the cat out of the bag."
+
+"What do you mean?"
+
+"That tongue of yours, my lad.  Your speech would betray you directly."
+
+"Oh, no, it would not," said Frank.  "Mutes are common enough in the
+East, are they not?"
+
+"Oh, yes, but--"
+
+"Well, I would not talk."
+
+"Pooh!" cried the professor contemptuously.  "You wouldn't talk?  Why,
+you've got a tongue as long as a girl's.  You not talk?  Why, you'd be
+sure to burst out with something in plain English just when our lives
+were depending upon your silence."
+
+"_Urrr_!" growled the young fellow angrily.  "Give me credit for a
+little more common-sense.  Do you think, with the success of our
+expedition and poor Hal's life and happiness at stake, I couldn't make a
+vow to preserve silence for so many months, and keep it?"
+
+"I do think so," said the professor, clapping one hand down upon the
+other.  "You would find it impossible.  What do you say, Bob?"
+
+"Humph!" grunted the doctor.
+
+"Come, there's no need for you to hold your tongue," cried the professor
+petulantly.  "Say something."
+
+"Very well, I'll say something," replied the doctor: "I don't know."
+
+"Yes, you do.  You know it's impossible."
+
+"No," said the doctor thoughtfully; "I know it would be very hard, but
+seeing what a stubborn, determined fellow Frank is, I should not be
+surprised if he succeeded."
+
+"Hurrah!" cried Frank.  "There, Landon."
+
+"Bob ought to know better," cried the professor.  "It's impossible--
+that's impossible--the whole business is impossible.  Can't be done."
+
+"Well, I don't know," said the doctor, taking both hands to his beard
+and stroking and spreading it out over his breast, where it lay in crisp
+curls, glistening with many lights and giving him a very noble and
+venerable aspect.  "I'm beginning to like that idea of going as a
+learned physician."
+
+"Oh, yes, that's right enough," said the professor.  "There's no
+imposition there.  The Arabs would have nothing to find out, and their
+suspicions would be allayed at once.  Then, too, you could humbug them
+grandly with a few of your modern doctors' tools--one of those
+double-barrelled stethoscopes, for instance; or a clinical thermometer."
+
+"To be sure," cried Frank.  "Modern Magic--good medicine for the
+unbelieving savages.  An electric battery, too; and look here, both of
+you: the Rontgen rays."
+
+"Ha, ha!" laughed the doctor, and making his beard wag with enjoyment.
+"Yes, that would startle them.  White man's magic.  Fancy, Fred, old
+chap, a wounded man with a bullet in him, and I at work with my black
+slave, Frank, here, to help me, in a dark tent, while I made the poor
+wretch transparent to find out where the bullet lay."
+
+"Yes, or broken spear-head," said the professor eagerly.  "I say, Bob,
+there'd be no gammon over that: the savage beggars would believe that
+they had a real live magician come amongst them then."
+
+"Yes, ha, ha! wouldn't they?  I say, old fellow, I'm beginning to think
+it ought to be worked."
+
+"Worked, yes," cried Frank excitedly.  "I could take a few odds and ends
+from my laboratory, too, so as to show them some beautiful experiments--
+fire burning under water, throwing potassium on the river to make it
+blaze; use some phosphorescent oil; and startle them with Lycopodium
+dust in the air; or a little fulminating mercury or silver."
+
+"H'm, yes, you might," said the professor thoughtfully.  "You could both
+of you astonish them pretty well, and all that would keep up your
+character."
+
+"But of course it's all impossible, isn't it?" said Frank, smiling.
+
+"H'm!  I don't quite know," said the professor slowly.
+
+"Look here," said the doctor rising, to seat himself upon one end of the
+hearthrug, where he began trying to drag his legs across into a
+comfortable sitting position, but failed dismally; "I'm afraid I should
+never manage this part of the business.  My joints have grown too
+stiff."
+
+"Oh, nonsense," said the professor sharply; "it only wants a little
+practice.  Look here."
+
+He plumped himself down upon the other end of the hearthrug quite in the
+native manner, and seemed perfectly at his ease, while Frank sat
+watching them both with his eyes twinkling in his delight.
+
+"You can't do it in those tight trousers.  You want good loose, baggy
+breeches, knickerbockery sort of things.  Oh, you'd soon do it.--That's
+better."
+
+"Yes," said the doctor dubiously; "that's a little better; but these
+trousers are, as you say, too tight.  I tell you what I'd do, Frank," he
+continued, perfectly seriously, "I'd have my head shaved clean, and keep
+it so."
+
+"Bravo!" cried the professor excitedly.  "Splendid!  Your bald head over
+that grand beard and a very large white turban of the finest Eastern
+muslin, twisted up as I could twist it for you, would give just the
+finishing touches.  Just spread the skirts of that dressing-gown a
+little."
+
+Frank sprang to the task, and in arranging the folds uncovered one of
+the yellow Morocco slippers the doctor happened to be wearing.
+
+"That's good," cried the professor excitedly.  "Fetch those sofa
+cushions, Frank, and put them so that he can rest his arm upon them.
+Good!  Now a pipe.  Here, fish out my stick from under the table.
+That's right," he continued, as Frank placed the stick upside down in
+the doctor's hand, with the ferrule near his lips and the hook resting
+on the floor, turned up like a bowl.
+
+"Well, I am!" cried the professor, drawing his legs more under him, and
+nodding at his old school-fellow seated opposite at the other end of the
+hearthrug.  "Franky, boy, he looks the very perfection of a Turkish
+doctor now, while with the real things on and his head shaved, and the
+turban--Oh, I haven't a doubt of it, he'd humbug the Mahdi himself if he
+were alive.  I haven't a bit of fear about him.  Sit still, old man.--As
+for myself, I should be all right; when I get out there I feel more of a
+native than an Englishman.  It's you who are the trouble, Franky, for I
+confess I am coming round."
+
+"I shall get myself up perfectly.  You may depend upon that," said the
+lad confidently, "and all through the voyage out Morris will coach me up
+about bandaging and helping him in ambulance work, so that I may get to
+be a bit clever as his assistant."
+
+"Yes, yes, yes, that's all right," said the professor impatiently.
+"It's not that which bothers me.  Look at Bob.  I can see him in his
+part exactly.  Nothing could be better; but I can't see you at all."
+
+"Why?  Set your imagination to work."
+
+"I am, my dear boy; I am.  It's working till my brain's beginning to
+throb; but I can't see you, as I say."
+
+"But why not?"
+
+"No shape; no form.  You're too skinny.  A young nigger ought to be
+plump, and shine like butter."
+
+"Well, I'll oil myself," said Frank, laughing as much at himself as at
+the doctor seated _a la Turque_ so solemnly upon the hearthrug.
+
+"But your hair, Frank, my boy.  It's brown and streaky.  It ought to
+curl up more tightly than Bob's beard."
+
+"I'll put it in paper every night, and dye it at the same time as I do
+my skin."
+
+"H'm!  Well, perhaps we might work it that way.  If we can't, we must
+shave your head too."
+
+"Barkis is willin'," said the young man readily.  "As to the sitting--
+look here: won't this do?"
+
+He seized the tongs from the fender, took a live coal from between the
+bars, dropped down sitting upon his heels halfway between the pair, but
+outside the hearthrug, and completed the Eastern picture in Wimpole
+Street by resting upon his left hand and making believe to be holding
+the live coal to the bowl of the Hakim's pipe.
+
+"Bravo!  Splendid!" cried the professor.  "A _tableau vivant_, only
+wanting in colour and clothes to be perfect in all its details, and
+then--"
+
+And then the group remained speechless in horror and disgust, for they
+suddenly became aware of the fact that Sam had silently entered with a
+letter upon a silver waiter, and had stopped short close to the door, to
+stand staring in astonishment at the living picture spread before his
+eyes.  These seemed starting, while his brow was lined, the rest of his
+face puckered, and his mouth opened, at the same time his muscles
+relaxing so that the silver waiter dropped a little and the letter fell
+upon the soft carpet with a light pat which in the silence sounded loud.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER FOUR.
+
+THE NEW RECRUIT.
+
+For a few moments the picture was at its best, actors and spectator
+looking as rigid as if carved in wood or stone.
+
+Then all was over, the doctor dropping the stick and scrambling up;
+Frank putting the tongs into the fender, Sam stooping to pick up the
+letter from the carpet, and the professor tearing his fez off his head,
+to dash it on the floor.
+
+"Hang it!" he cried angrily; "destroyed the illusion!  There, it's all
+over, Frank.  I can't see it now."
+
+"Beg pardon, sir.  Letter, sir," said Sam stiffly, and he was as rigid
+as a drill sergeant, and his face like wood in its absence of all
+expression, as he stared hard over the waiter at his master, whose
+fingers trembled and cheeks coloured a little as he took the missive.
+
+"Ahem!" said the doctor uneasily, and Sam, who was about to wheel about
+and leave the room, stood fast.  "A--er--er--a little experiment,
+Samuel," he continued.
+
+"Yes, sir," said the man quietly.
+
+"Er--errum--Samuel," said the doctor; "the fact is, I--er--we--er--we do
+not wish this--that you have seen just now--talked about downstairs."
+
+"Suttonly _not_! sir," said the man sharply, though the moment before he
+had been chuckling to himself about how he would make cook laugh about
+the games being carried on in the study.
+
+"Thank you, Samuel," said the doctor, clearing his throat and gaining
+confidence as he went on.  "The fact is, Samuel, a confidential servant
+ought to be trustworthy."
+
+"Suttonly, sir," said Sam.
+
+"And hear, see, and--"
+
+"Say nothing, sir, of course.  You may depend upon me, sir."
+
+"Thank you, Samuel.  Well, after what you heard last night you will not
+be surprised that we have decided to go out to Egypt at once in search
+of Mr Harry Frere."
+
+"Not a bit, sir.  Just what I should expect."
+
+"Exactly, Samuel.  To go up the country means, you see, the necessity of
+dressing ourselves like the people out there."
+
+"Yes, sir; much better for the climate."
+
+"And that is why we were, so to speak, going through a little practice."
+
+"Suttonly, sir.  Quite right.  And about luggage, sir.  What shall I get
+ready?"
+
+"Ah!  That requires a little consideration, Samuel.  I'll go into that
+with you by and by."
+
+"Very good, sir.  But I should like to ask one question."
+
+"Certainly, Samuel," said the doctor gravely; "what is it?"
+
+"Only this, sir.  When do we start?"
+
+"When do we start?" said the doctor, staring.  "My good man, I did not
+propose to take you."
+
+"Not take me, sir?" cried the butler, staring.  "Why, whatever do you
+think you could do without me?"
+
+The doctor stared blankly at his man, and then turned to the professor.
+
+"Ah!  No hesitation, Morris," said the latter sharply.  "I haven't quite
+come round yet regarding both of you, though matters have altered me a
+good deal during the last five minutes; but with regard to this last
+phase--the idea of taking your servant--that really is quite out of the
+question."
+
+"I beg your pardon, sir," said Sam seriously; "I don't think that it
+would be right for master to think of going without me."
+
+"Well, Samuel, I must own," said the doctor thoughtfully, "I should miss
+your services very much."
+
+"You couldn't do it without me, sir," said the man sternly.  "I
+shouldn't like you to attempt it."
+
+"Look here, Doctor Morris," said the professor angrily, "do you allow
+your servant to dictate to you like this?"
+
+"Well, you see," said the doctor, "Samuel has always been such a good,
+attentive fellow, and taken so much interest in his work, Landon, that I
+feel rather puzzled as to whether this is dictation or no."
+
+"It aren't, sir, really," cried Sam appealingly.  "Is it, Mr Frank?"
+
+"Well, no, I don't think it is," said the young man.  "I take it that
+Sam is only anxious to go on waiting upon his master."
+
+"That's it, sir.  Thankye, Mr Frank.  That's it, but it ain't all.  If
+you three gentlemen are going on your travels to find and bring back Mr
+Harry, it seemed to me that I'm just the sort o' man as would be useful.
+I don't want to make out as I'm a dabster at any one thing, gentlemen,
+but there ain't many things I shouldn't be ready to have a try at, from
+catching one's dinner to cooking it, or from sewing on buttons to making
+a shoe."
+
+"Look here, Sam, you can shave, I know," said Frank, "for you've shaved
+me several times."
+
+"Well, sir," said the man, with a queer cock of the eye, "I've soaped
+and lathered your chin, and I've run a razor over your face, but I don't
+think I found anything to scrape off."
+
+"I call that mean," cried Frank; "just when I was putting in a word for
+you.  I'm sure there was a little down on my upper lip and chin."
+
+"Oh, yes, sir, just as if you had had a touch with a sooty finger; but
+down don't count with me in shaving; it's what comes up bristly and
+strong."
+
+"Well, leave my beard alone," said Frank.  "Look here, could you shave a
+man's head?"
+
+"Ask master, sir," said the butler with a grin, and Frank turned to his
+brother's old companion.
+
+"Oh, yes, he has shaved the heads of patients for me several times,"
+said the doctor.  "He's very clever at that."
+
+"I say, Professor Landon," said Frank, turning to him, "do you hear
+this?  The Hakim ought to have his barber, and you know what important
+folk they are in the East."
+
+"Humph!  Yes," said the professor thoughtfully; "there is something in
+that.  Barbers have become grand viziers, and in such shaving countries
+a barber is held in high respect.  He would be all right there.  But no,
+no, I cannot be weak over so vital a thing as this.  Just think, you
+two, of the consequences if through some inept act on his part he should
+ruin all our prospects."
+
+"Me, sir?" cried Sam excitedly; "me ruin your prospects by committing
+that there act as you said!  I wouldn't do it for any money.  Take a
+oath before a magistrate or a judge that I wouldn't I don't even know
+what it is."
+
+"Oh, you'd do your best, I believe, Sam," said the professor.
+
+"I'm glad you do, sir," said the man, who was almost whimpering.  "It
+sounds hard on an old servant to be thought likely to do what you said."
+
+"But look here, my lad; we ought to do all that is wanted for ourselves,
+excepting such little jobs as we could set the Arabs to do."
+
+"Arabs, sir?  The Arabs!" cried Sam.  "Oh, I don't think much of them.
+I've seen 'em.  That lot as come over to London seven years ago.
+Bed-ridden Arabs they call theirselves.  They could tumble head over
+heels, and fire off guns when they were in the air; but you gentlemen
+want a good honest English servant, not a street tumbler and accryback."
+
+"Tut, tut, tut! listen to me," said the professor.  "Do you know what
+the desert is like?"
+
+"Can't say I know much about it, sir, only what I read in Mungo Park's
+travels.  Deal o' sand, ain't there?"
+
+"Yes," said the professor, "there is a deal of sand there, and no
+houses, no butlers' pantries, no kitchens."
+
+"Well, sir, if I made up a box with half a knifeboard for a lid, and my
+bottle o' blacking, my brushes, and a leather or two and the rouge for
+my plate, I daresay I could get on."
+
+"Bah-h-h-h!" snarled the professor.  "Why didn't you add a big stone
+filter, a plate-rack, and a kitchen boiler?  My good man, you're
+impossible."
+
+"I ain't, sir, 'pon my word.  You mean I should have to make more of a
+shift.  Well, of course I would."
+
+"Look here, then, I grant that you can shave.  You can make a fire, boil
+water, and cook?"
+
+"Can I, sir?" cried the man scornfully.  "I should think I can!"
+
+"Can you cook kabobs?"
+
+"What's them, sir--Egyptian vegetables?"
+
+"Vegetables!  Hark at him!  Did you ever hear of Kous-kous?"
+
+"Can't say I ever did, sir; but look here, I'll buy `Cookery for the
+Million,' and I'll soon learn."
+
+"Oh, you're improving!" said the professor sarcastically.  "Here, I'll
+try you on something else.  Could you ride and drive a camel?"
+
+"What, one of them wobbly, humpy things at the Zoo?  I never tried, sir,
+but I've seen the children have rides on them.  I could soon manage one
+o' them, sir.  I'd try an elephant if it came to that."
+
+The professor shook his head disparagingly, and Sam gave Frank and his
+master an imploring look, which made the former take his part.  "Look
+here, professor," he said quietly; "really I think it might be managed,"
+and Sam's long face shortened.
+
+"Managed!  Do you think we shall do what we propose if you and Morris
+take your valets?"
+
+"There is going to be a black slave in the party," said Frank, "and I do
+not see why the Hakim should not have a barber who is a white slave."
+
+"Humph!" ejaculated the professor, in a regular camel-like grunt, and he
+set up his back after the manner of that animal.
+
+"Would you mind going as a slave, Sam?" asked Frank--"the Hakim's
+slave?"
+
+"Not a bit, sir, so long as Mr Hakim's going to be one of the party.
+Me mind being a slave?  Not I.  Ain't Mr Harry one pro tempenny?  I'm
+willing, sir, willing for anything.  I don't want no wages.  I want to
+go."
+
+"And you shall go, Samuel," said the doctor firmly.  "I'll talk the
+matter over with Mr Landon."
+
+"Thankye, sir, thankye," cried the man joyfully.  "And I beg your
+pardon, Mr Landon, sir; don't you take against me because it's going
+against you.  I'm willing to do any manner of things to make you
+gentlemen comfortable all the time."
+
+"I believe you, Sam," said the professor.  "There, I give way."
+
+"Thankye kindly, sir!" cried the man excitedly.
+
+"But look here.  It is only due to him that he should be told that we
+are going upon a very dangerous expedition.  We shall have to travel
+amongst people who would think it a meritorious action to cut our
+throats if they had the merest suspicion that we were going to try and
+rescue Mr Harry Frere.  Then we shall have the risks of fever, dying
+from thirst, perhaps from hunger, and as likely as not being taken
+prisoners ourselves and made slaves--are you listening, Sam?"
+
+"Hearing every word, sir.  But I say, sir, is it as bad as that?"
+
+"Honestly, my man," said the professor solemnly; "it is all that and
+worse, because we shall have to cut ourselves adrift from all Government
+protection and trust to our own wits.  Now then, my man, do not hesitate
+for an instant--if you feel that you cannot cheerfully put up with peril
+and danger, and dare every risk, say so at once, for you will be doing
+your master a good turn as well as us."
+
+"Are you gentlemen going to chance it all?" said Sam quietly.
+
+"Certainly."
+
+"All right, gentlemen, then so am I, and as soon as ever you like."
+
+"Hah!" ejaculated Frank, who had been watching the play of the man's
+countenance anxiously, and he crossed to Sam and shook his hand, making
+the butler's face glow with pride and pleasure combined.
+
+"Now then," said the professor, "one more word, Sam.  It is of vital
+importance that you keep all this a profound secret.  From this hour you
+know nothing except that you are the Hakim's servant till we have left
+Cairo.  After that you are the Hakim's slave, and you hold him in awe."
+
+"Of course, sir," said Sam, with his face wrinkling with perplexity.
+"I'll hold him in anything you like.  I won't say a word to a soul.  I
+won't know anything, and I hope Mr Hakim will be as satisfied with me
+as master has always been."
+
+"And you think I have always been satisfied with you, Samuel?" said the
+doctor, smiling pleasantly.
+
+"I think so, sir," replied the man.  "I've been some years in your
+service, and you're a gentleman as will always have everything done as
+it should be."
+
+"Of course."
+
+"And you never found fault with me yet.  And I _will_ say that a better
+mas--"
+
+"No, you will not," said the doctor quickly.  "That will do."
+
+"Certainly, sir," said the man, looking abashed.
+
+"You like the doctor as a master, then?" said Frank, with a twinkle of
+the eye.
+
+"Like him, sir!" cried Sam.
+
+"Well, I think you will like your new master quite as well."
+
+"I hope so, sir.  I'll do my best.  Shall I see him soon?"
+
+"Of course," said Frank.  "There he is.  The Hakim, Doctor Morris--the
+learned surgeon who is going to practise through the Soudan."
+
+"Oh-h-h!" cried Sam, with his face lighting up.  "I see now, gentlemen."
+
+"But remember," said the doctor sternly, "the necessity for silence has
+begun, so keep your own counsel, which will be keeping ours."
+
+"Yes, sir."
+
+"Now go and begin putting together the few things you will require on
+our voyage and journey."
+
+"Remembering," said the professor, "that we must take only the simplest
+necessaries.  I shall have to overhaul every man's bag after you have
+brought it down to the lowest state.  There, Sam, I agree to your going
+fully, for I believe you will not let us repent it."
+
+"Thank you, sir.  Shall we go soon?"
+
+"Within forty-eight hours if it can be managed.  Give me my hat and
+stick.  I'll go at once and see if berths are to be had on a P. and O.
+boat.  You two will begin getting absolute necessaries together in the
+way of your professional needs, not forgetting your instruments and
+chemicals, Frank.  Take all you said.  They will be heavy and bulky, but
+they will pay for taking.  As for me, as soon as I have settled about
+the boat I will get my own few things together and see to the arms.  I
+have a pretty good selection of Arabian weapons.  What more we require
+can be obtained in the Cairene bazaar."
+
+
+
+CHAPTER FIVE.
+
+SHEIKH IBRAHIM.
+
+Time works wonders, they say; so does money in able and experienced
+hands.
+
+The professor's were experienced hands, and he had ample funds at his
+disposition.  The result of his inquiries that morning was that he found
+he could by starting the next night catch the mail which would bear him
+and his friends, travelling night and day, to Brindisi--for southern
+Italy, where the mail steamer would be waiting to take them on to
+Ismailia.  Then in a few days from starting they would have changed into
+the not very efficient Egyptian railway, to be set down within sight of
+the pyramids on the borders of the mighty desert, with the south open to
+them, if all went as they had arranged, for their journey in search of
+the prisoner gazing northward and hoping still that help might come and
+his captivity and sufferings at last be ended.
+
+It is wonderful what energy will do.
+
+Now that the plans had been decided upon the professor worked like a
+slave.  Long experience had made him an adept.  He knew exactly what
+outfitters to go to, and when there what to select, and it was wonderful
+how little he deemed necessary.
+
+"You see we hardly want anything here, Frank, lad," he said.  "Some
+things we cannot get out there, but the majority of our necessaries we
+must buy in Cairo, and quietly too, for if it got wind that we were
+going upon such an expedition we should be stopped."
+
+"I suppose so."
+
+"But I can manage all that.  I have an old friend or two, sheikhs who
+will do anything I ask, and supply me on the quiet with followers and
+tents and camels.  For they love me as a brother, and you shall hear
+them say all sorts of sugary flowers of speech.  They will bless me, and
+say that it is like the rising of the sun upon their tents to see my
+noble visage once again.  They will kiss the sand beneath my feet in the
+warmth of their attachment, and do all I wish for shekels, Franky, all
+for shekels."
+
+"But can you trust them?" said Frank.
+
+"Certainly.  They will keep faith, and be ready even to fight for us if
+the odds are not too great, and the shekels are duly paid.  There, I
+don't think we need trouble about anything more, after the two leather
+cases are packed with the conjuring tricks and physic of the learned
+Hakim and his slaves.  The sinews of war will do the rest.  Hah!  I am
+glad we are going into the desert once again.  We must get to Hal as
+soon as possible, and somehow scheme to get him free, but you must curb
+your impatience.  It will be all express till we reach Cairo--all the
+end of the nineteenth century; but once we are there, excepting for the
+civilisation of that modern city we shall have gone back to the times of
+the Arabian Nights and find the country and the people's ways unchanged.
+And do you know what that means?"
+
+"Pretty well," said Frank; "crawling at a foot's pace when one wants to
+fly."
+
+"That's it; just as fast as a camel will walk."
+
+Those hours of preparation passed more quickly to Frank than any that he
+could recall during his busy young life, and over and over again he
+despaired of the party being ready in time, so that he could hardly
+believe it when the carriage-door was slammed, the whistle sounded, and
+the train glided out of the London terminus with the question being
+mentally asked, Shall we ever see the old place again?
+
+Then sleepless nights and drowsy days, as the party sped through France
+and Switzerland, dived through the great tunnel, to flash out into light
+in sunny Italy, and then on and on south, with the rattle of the train
+forming itself into a constant repetition of two words, which had been
+yelled in the tunnel and echoed from the rocky walls of the deep
+cutting--always the same: "_Save Harry!  Save Harry_!" till Frank's
+brain throbbed.
+
+Then Brindisi, with the mails being hurried from the train to the noble
+steamer waiting to plough the Mediterranean and bear the adventurers
+south and east for the land of mystery with its wonders of a bygone
+civilisation buried deeply in the ever-preserving sand.
+
+And now for the first time Frank's brain began to be at rest from the
+hurry of the start, as he lay back half asleep in the hot sunshine,
+watching the surface of the blue Mediterranean and the soft, silvery
+clouds overhead, while the doctor and the professor sat in deck-chairs,
+reading or comparing notes, but all three resting so as to be ready for
+the work in hand.
+
+It was one glorious evening when Frank was leaning over the side gazing
+forward towards the land that they were soon to reach, and where they
+would give up the inert life they were leading for one of wild and
+stirring adventure, that the young man suddenly started out of his
+dreamy musings, for a voice behind him said softly--
+
+"Beg pardon, sir."  Frank turned sharply round.  "Don't mind me
+speaking, sir, I hope?"
+
+"No, Sam," said Frank, rousing himself and speaking in a tone which
+plainly suggested, "_Go on_."
+
+"Thankye, sir.  Don't seem to have had a chance to speak to you in all
+this rumble tumble sort of look-sharp-or-you'll-be-left-behind time."
+
+"No, we haven't seen much of one another, Sam."
+
+"We ain't, sir, and I don't know as I've wanted to talk much, for it's
+took all my time to think and make out whether it's all true."
+
+"All true?"
+
+"Yes, sir.  Seems to me as if I'm going to wake up directly to find I've
+been having a nap in my pantry in Wimpole Street."
+
+"Hah!  It has been a rush, Sam."
+
+"Rush, sir?  It's wonderful.  Seems only yesterday we were packing up,
+and now here we are--down here on the map.  One of the sailors put his
+finger--here it is, sir, signed Jack Tar, his mark, for it was one of
+the English sailors, not one of the Lascar chaps.  That's where we are,
+sir."
+
+Sam held up a conveniently folded map, surely enough marked by the tip
+of a perspiring finger.
+
+"He says we shall be in port to-morrow, and have to shift on to the rail
+again, and in a few hours be in Cairo on the River Nile."
+
+"That's quite correct, Sam," said Frank, smiling; "and then our work
+will begin."
+
+"And a good job too, sir; I want to be at it.  But my word! it seems
+wonderful.  Me only the other day in my pantry, Wimpole Street, W., and
+to-morrow in King Pharaoh's city where there were the plagues and
+pyramids."
+
+"And now hotels and electric lights, and the telegraph to communicate
+with home."
+
+"Yes, sir, it's alarming," said Sam.  "Pity it don't go right up to
+Khartoum--that's the place, ain't it, sir?"
+
+"Yes, Sam."
+
+"So as we could send a message to Mr Harry: `Keep up your spirits;
+we're on the way.'"
+
+"Ah, if we could, Sam!" said Frank, with a sigh.
+
+"Never mind, sir; we're not losing much time.  But who'd ever think it!
+I used to fancy that foreign abroad would look foreign, but it don't a
+bit.  Here's the sea and the sky looking just as it does off the Isle o'
+Wight when you're out o' sight o' land; and only when we saw the
+mountains with a morsel of snow on their tops did the land look
+different to at home.  I suppose it will be a bit strange in Egypt,
+though, sir, won't it?"
+
+"Oh, yes.  Wait a few hours longer," said Frank, "and then you'll see."
+
+Sam came to him the next night when they were settled in the European
+hotel, where the professor was welcomed as an old friend.
+
+"I've put out all you'll want, sir," said the man.  "Is there anything
+else I can do?"
+
+"No, Sam; I'm just going to bed so as to have a good night's rest ready
+for work to-morrow.  Well, does this seem foreign?"
+
+"Foreign, sir?  Hullo! there's another of 'em."--_Slap_.--"Missed him
+again!  Have they been at you yet, sir?"
+
+"What, the mosquitoes?  Yes.  I just brushed one off."
+
+"They seem to fancy me, sir.  I expected they'd be great big things, but
+they're only just like our gnats at home."
+
+"Indeed!  What about their bite!"
+
+"Oh, yes, they bite sharper, sir.  I expect it's because they're so
+precious hungry, sir.  But foreign?  Oh, _yes_, this'll do, sir.  It's
+wonderful, what with the camels and the donkeys.  My word! they are fine
+'uns.  I saw one go along cantering like a horse.  Yes, sir, this'll do.
+But I suppose we're not going to stay here long?"
+
+"Only till the professor can make his preparations for the start, and
+then we're off right away into the desert."
+
+"Right, sir; on donkeys?"
+
+"On camels, Sam."
+
+"H'm!  Seems rather high up in the air, sir.  Good way to fall on to a
+hard road."
+
+"Road--hard road, Sam?" said Frank laughing.  "If you fall it will be on
+to soft sand.  There are no roads in the desert."
+
+"No roads, sir?  You mean no well-made roads."
+
+"I mean no roads at all; not even a track, for the drifting sand soon
+hides the last foot-prints."
+
+Sam stared.
+
+"Why, how do you find your way, sir?" said Sam, staring blankly.
+
+"Either by the compass, as one would at sea, or by trusting to the
+Arabs, who know the landmarks."
+
+"And sometimes by the camels' bones," said the professor, who had
+entered the room unheard.  "Plenty of them die along the caravan tracks.
+But I daresay we shall find our way, for there is the big river which
+marks our course pretty well, if we were at fault."
+
+"Thankye, sir; you'd be sure to know," said Sam hurriedly.  "I was only
+asking Mr Frank like so as to pick up a little about the place."
+
+The man asked no more questions, but made the best of his way to his own
+room.
+
+"Come down and out into the grounds, my lad," said the professor.  "The
+doctor's sitting in the garden having his cigar."
+
+"I was just going to bed."
+
+"Yes, but come with me for an hour first.  I've an old friend waiting to
+see me, and I thought I'd bring you down."
+
+"I don't want to meet his old friends," thought Frank impatiently.  Then
+aloud, as he followed: "Of course you will say nothing about the object
+of our visit here?"
+
+"Trust me," said the professor quietly.
+
+"Is your friend staying here?"
+
+"Yes; he comes here regularly at this time of year, expecting to meet
+old visitors to Egypt."
+
+"I see," said Frank drily.  Then to himself, "I wish he was at Jericho.
+I can't talk about anything now but the desert."
+
+As they descended into the prettily lit-up hall and went out into the
+garden among the palm trees, the scene was attractive enough to fix any
+newcomer's eyes; but Frank could see nothing but a long wide stretch of
+desert country, at the horizon of which were a few palms overshadowing
+dingy, sun-baked mud buildings, houses formed of the brick made of straw
+now as in the days when the taskmaster-beaten Israelitish bondmen put up
+such pitiful plaint.
+
+"Where is the doctor?" said Frank.
+
+"Over yonder on that seat," replied the professor, as they were going
+down a sandy path towards a group of palms.  "Ah, there's my friend."
+
+Frank looked in the indicated direction, but he saw no English visitor.
+There was a stately looking turbaned figure, draped in white, standing
+in the dim shadowy light among the palms, and he seemed to catch sight
+of them at the same moment, and came softly forward, to stop short and
+make a low obeisance to each in turn.
+
+"Well, Ibrahim, how are you?" said the professor sharply.
+
+"His Excellency's servant is well and happy now, for his soul rejoices
+to find that the dogs told lies.  They said his Excellency would not
+come to El Caire until the war was over, and the Mahdi's successor--may
+his fathers' graves be defiled--had gone back to the other dogs of the
+far desert."
+
+"Oh, yes, I've come again.  Frank, this is Sheikh Ibrahim, of the Dhur
+Tribe.  And look here, Ibrahim, this is my friend and brother, Mr Frank
+Frere."
+
+"And my master," said the Arab, with another grave and dignified
+reverence, speaking too, in spite of the flowery Eastern ornamentation,
+in excellent English.  "His Excellency has come, then, to continue his
+search for the remains of the old people?"
+
+"Hah!" cried the professor, "that's right.  Now let's understand one
+another at once.  No, Ibrahim, I have not."
+
+"Not come, Excellency?" cried the Sheikh, in a disappointed tone, and
+his hands flew up to his long flowing grey beard, but he did not tear
+it, contenting himself with giving two slight tugs.
+
+"No, not come to explore."
+
+"But, your Excellency, I and my people have found a fresh temple with
+tombs, and deep in the sand where no one has been before."
+
+"Yes, and you know too that the authorities have given strict orders
+that no expeditions are to be made right out in the desert on account of
+the danger?"
+
+"It is true, O Excellency," said the Arab, with a sigh, "and I and mine
+will starve.  We had better have been driving our sheep and goats here
+and there for pasture far away yonder, than waiting for English
+travellers.  All who are here go up the river in boats.  There are no
+journeys into the wilds this year.  I have been stopped twice."
+
+Frank glanced at the professor, and saw that his eyes were glittering as
+he spoke in a low tone.
+
+"Yes, Sheikh," he said; "it is very ill for you, and it is bad for me.
+There are those stones cut into and painted that we left buried in the
+sand."
+
+"Yes, Excellency; hidden safely away, waiting for your servants to dig
+them out.  Why not let me gather my people and let us go so many days'
+journey out into the wilderness and carry them off, before some other
+learned traveller to whose eyes all the mysteries of the past are like
+an open book shall come and find them?"
+
+"That would be bad, Ibrahim," said the professor slowly.
+
+"It would break thy servant's heart, Excellency," said the man.  "Look
+here, Excellency.  It is forbidden, but my people are away there to the
+south with the tents and camels, and their Excellencies might come and
+dwell with us in the tents for days, and then some night the camels
+would be ready--the poor beasts are sobbing and groaning for burdens to
+bear and long journeys into the desert--and some moonlight night they
+might be loaded with their sacks of grain and skins of water, and no one
+would know when we stole away into the desert to where the old tombs are
+hidden.  Then the treasures could be found and brought away by his
+Excellency's servants, who would rejoice after and have the wherewithal
+to buy oil and honey, dhurra and dates, so that their faces might shine
+and the starving camels grow sleek and fat upon his Excellency's
+bounty."
+
+"Ah," said the professor slowly and dubiously, as Frank listened with
+his heart beating fast, while he held his quivering nether lip pressed
+tightly by his teeth; "you think that would be possible, Sheikh?"
+
+"Possible, your Excellency?" said the man, in an earnest whisper; "why
+not?  Am I a man to boast and say `I will do this,' and then show that I
+have a heart of water, and do it not?"
+
+"No," said the professor slowly; "Sheikh Ibrahim has always been a man
+in whom my soul could trust, in the shadow of whose tent I have always
+lain down and slept in peace, for I have felt that his young men were
+ready with their spears to protect me, and that their father looked upon
+me as his sacred charge."
+
+"Hah!" said the Sheikh, with calm, grave dignity.  "They are the words
+of truth.  His Excellency trusts me as he has always done.  Will he
+come, then, into the desert once again?  If he says yes, Ibrahim will go
+away to-night with gladsome heart to the village close by, and there
+will be joy in the hearts of his two young men, who are waiting
+sorrowfully there."
+
+"You know the desert well, Ibrahim," said the professor slowly.
+
+"It is my home, Excellency.  My eyes opened upon it first, and when the
+time comes they will look upon it for the last time, and I shall sleep
+beneath its sands."
+
+"Yes, as a patriarchal Sheikh should," said the professor.  "But you and
+your young men are quite free from engagements?"
+
+"Ready to be thy servants, to do thy bidding, for no one wants us now;
+go where you will choose, and work and dig, and find as they have found
+before."
+
+"It is good," said the professor gravely.  "Of course I shall pay you
+well."
+
+"His Excellency always did pay us well," said the Arab, bending low.
+
+"And my two friends will add to the payment."
+
+The Arab smiled.
+
+"You will keep our departure quite private, Ibrahim--no one is to know."
+
+The man shook his head.
+
+"And I should want you to lead us wherever I chose to go."
+
+"You always did, Excellency."
+
+"But suppose I wanted you to go where some of your people--I mean men of
+your race--would consider it dangerous?"
+
+"There are Arabs of some tribes, Excellency, who are of low breed--men
+who are not of the pure blood, who would say the way was dangerous: the
+men of my tribe, the Dhur, do not know that word.  If they said they
+would take the English learned one, they would take him.  They have
+their spears and their guns and swords, and their camels are swift.  Is
+not that enough, O Excellency?"
+
+"Quite," said the professor; "but there would be danger, perhaps, for
+the Mahdi's followers range far."
+
+"True, my lord, and they are many.  Mine are but as a handful of sand.
+His Excellency would not go to fight the Khalifa?  It would be mad."
+
+"A wise man can fight with cunning, and do more than a strong man with
+his sword and spear."
+
+The Sheikh was silent, and stood in the semi-darkness with his eyes
+reflecting the lights of the hotel strangely, as he glanced from one to
+the other as if trying to read their faces.
+
+"I shall have to tell him all, Frank," said the professor slowly, in
+Latin.
+
+"The risk is too great," replied Frank hurriedly.  "We should be putting
+ourselves in his power, and if he is not true he would destroy all our
+hopes."
+
+"We can go no further without his help, Frank," said the professor
+gravely.  "_Tace_."
+
+"His Excellency's words are dark," said the Sheikh, in a low, deep
+voice.  "He speaks of dangers, and of the Mahdi's men, and of fighting
+with cunning.  Will he not fully trust his servant, and make his words
+and wishes shine with the light of day?  Does his Excellency wish to
+play the spy upon the new Mahdi's movements?"
+
+"No," said the professor firmly.
+
+The Sheikh drew a long breath which sounded like a sigh of relief.
+
+"I am glad," he said softly, "for their lives are dear to my young men.
+They have their wives and little ones, and the followers of the Mahdi
+seek blood.  What would the learned Englishman who loves the stone
+writings of the ancient people do amongst the conquering spearmen of the
+prophet's chosen one?"
+
+"Answer this, Ibrahim: Do you believe this new Mahdi or Khalifa is the
+chosen one of the prophet?"
+
+The Sheikh laughed softly.
+
+"Thy servant thought much when he was young, and all his life he has had
+dealings with the wise men from the west who have come here from many
+countries to see and seek out what the old people left buried in the
+sands of time.  He could not help, as he saw the wonders they brought to
+light, and sat in the same tent with them, growing wiser and thinking in
+their tongue.  He has seen, too, again and again, fresh prophets rise to
+utter the same cry, `Lo, O people, I am the prophet's chosen, sent to
+free the country from the heathen Christian dog.'  And it has always
+been the same: the people cry aloud and believe and follow him to the
+fight always to kill and destroy, to make slaves, and to pass like a
+flight of locusts across the land, and the new prophet eats and drinks
+and makes merry till he dies like the thousands he has killed; but he
+does not carry out his boast, and another arises and cries, `Lo, I am
+the chosen of the prophet.  Upon me does the Mahdi's mantle fall.'
+Excellency, I am a man of the desert, but there is wisdom even amongst
+the sand, and I have picked up some, enough to know when false prophets
+come amongst the people.  No; I do not believe the new Mahdi is the
+chosen one.  He is only another man of blood.  Why does my master ask?
+Why does he wish to run where there is danger to him and his friends--
+danger to us who would be his guides?"
+
+"Listen," said the professor, and in a few well-chosen words he told the
+old Sheikh of Harry Frere's unhappy fate.
+
+"Hah!" ejaculated the old Arab, after hearing the speaker to the end.
+"Yes; I have heard of this before.  With mine own eyes I saw the German
+who escaped, and it was said that there was a young Englishman out
+yonder, a slave.  And he is your brother, my lord?" he continued,
+turning quickly upon Frank.
+
+"Yes; my brother, whom I have come here to save."
+
+"It is good," said the Arab slowly.  "But I hear that an army is going
+south to fight the Khalifa."
+
+"Yes," said Frank bitterly; "but it will be months or years before they
+reach the place, and before then my brother may be dead.  Sheikh," said
+Frank, in a low, hoarse voice that bespoke the emotion from which he
+suffered "he is a slave, and in chains.  I must go to his help at once."
+
+"The young Excellency's words are good, and they make the eyes of his
+servant dark with sorrow; but it will not be freeing his brother from
+his chains if he goes as a young man would, to rashly throw away his
+life.  It is so easy away out there.  Here there is law, and if a man
+steals or raises his hand against his brother man, there is the wise
+judge waiting, and the judgment bar.  But out yonder they make their own
+laws, and it is but a thrust with a spear, a stroke with a sharp sword,
+and the sand is ever athirst to drink up the blood, the jackals and the
+unclean birds to leave nothing but a few bones.  Has the young
+Excellency thought of all this?"
+
+"Yes," said Frank hoarsely, "and I have seen in the darkness of the
+night when I could not sleep, my brother's hands stretched out to me,
+and have felt that I could hear his voice calling to me to come and save
+him."
+
+The Sheikh stood silently there beneath the palms, and for some minutes
+no words came.
+
+At last he repeated his former stereotyped expression.
+
+"It is good.  Yes," he said, "it is good, and God will go before you on
+such an errand as this, my son.  I am growing old now."
+
+"And you--"
+
+Frank began to utter his thoughts impulsively, but the professor laid a
+hand sharply upon his arm.
+
+"Silence," he said, and the Arab paused for a few moments as if to give
+way, but as Frank checked himself he went on--
+
+"--And old men grow to love money and greater flocks and herds, and more
+and better camels, as they come nearer to the time when all these things
+will be as naught.  I have been much with the wise men from Europe, and
+it has been pleasant to my soul to take their piastres to make my tribe
+richer every year.  His Excellency here has paid me much gold in the
+past times, and I and my people have worked justly for him, so that he
+has come to us again and again, till his coming has been that of a
+friend, and my heart was sore when I heard that he was not to be with us
+this season of the year.  And now he has come for this as to a friend to
+ask the help of me and mine.  He has come to me as a brother in
+suffering, and it is good.  Yes, Excellency, you are welcome to the
+tents of your brethren, and we will do all we can to bring the lost one
+back.  And what I bid my people do they will do, till I am gathered to
+my fathers and my son takes my place.  But when I go to my people
+to-night and tell them of your words, they will say `O my father, this
+is not work for money.  Our master must not give us payment for such a
+thing as this.  Of a truth we will go and bring the young man back to
+those who mourn for him.  If we redden the sand with our blood instead,
+well, we have died as men, and we shall sleep with the just.'"
+
+The professor caught the old Arab's hand, and Frank snatched impulsively
+at the other, the thin, nervous fingers closing tightly upon the English
+grip, and they stood in silence for some minutes.
+
+"Tell him what I feel," said Frank at last.  "I can't find words."
+
+"Neither can I," said the professor, "but I must try."
+
+"Listen, Sheikh," he said, "you have made our hearts glad within us.
+For when this news came to England I said to myself that I would seek my
+old Arab friend and ask him to help me to find our young brother."
+
+"It is good," said the Arab softly.  "You remembered the far away."
+
+"How could I forget the man who watched by me in his tent when I was
+sick unto death, and who rejoiced over me when I was brought back to
+life?  I looked back upon you as a brother and friend, and now I have
+come; but this must not be only a work of friendship.  You and your
+young men must be paid, and paid well, for all their risks, for we do
+not come as poor suppliants.  I and my friends are fairly rich, and will
+gladly spend money over this adventure."
+
+"Yes, money is as water that we fling upon the sand at such a time as
+this," said the Sheikh.  "And you are rich.  Well, so are we.  Our life
+is simple; we live as we have always lived, in tents, and our riches are
+in our flocks and herds, our camels and our horses.  We have our pride
+as you have, even if we do work for the rich English for the piastres
+they pay.  But in such a work as this for our wise brother and friend,
+take money?  No; we go to help our brother.  It is for love."
+
+"But Sheikh--" began Frank.
+
+"Let your young brother be silent, Excellency; the bargain is made, and
+we must have much thought about how this is to be done.  As you said,
+the fight must be with cunning; much wisdom must be brought to bear.  We
+must try and find out what the Khalifa desires most.  We must go as
+merchants, and you will need your piastres to buy enough for a little
+caravan of such things as will be welcome in the enemy's camp.  Powder
+for the guns of his people for certain he will want.  Strong wines and
+waters too, for he, like those of his kind, loves to break the prophet's
+laws.  I will leave you now to sleep and muse upon all this.  Mayhap you
+will find some plan or scheme, as you English call it, that will be
+better than mine; but something of this sort it must be, and we will
+go."
+
+"Yes," said Frank eagerly, "and we will go."
+
+The Sheikh shook his head slowly.
+
+"No," he said, "this is no work for such as you.  The task is for me and
+mine.  Good-night."
+
+He turned, and seemed to fade into the darkness at once, just as the
+doctor, who had been waiting impatiently upon the seat, strode up.
+
+"Well," he said, "have you secured your man?"
+
+"Yes," replied the professor; "but there is a battle yet to fight.  He
+does not know our plans."
+
+
+
+CHAPTER SIX.
+
+THE STARTING POINT.
+
+What with the excitement and the change, as it were, into another life
+such as he had only read of in books, Frank Frere's was a very poor
+night's rest, so that after dozing off and waking again and again, hot,
+feverish, and uncomfortable, he was not sorry to see the first signs of
+dawn peering through his blinds.
+
+Getting from beneath the mosquito curtain, he opened the window wider,
+and then stayed for a few minutes to wonder that the morning air should
+be so cool to his heated brows.
+
+Returning to bed, he lay thinking for a few minutes, and then all at
+once thought ceased and he slept soundly for an hour, to start up in
+horror, full of the impression that he had overslept himself.
+
+But a glance at his watch showed that it was still early, as he began to
+dress, meaning to have a look round the place before breakfast.
+Matters, however, shaped themselves differently, for on going to the
+window and looking out, there to the left lay the hotel garden with its
+clumps of palms and orange trees, where beneath the former he saw an
+early visitor in the shape of the tall, dignified-looking Sheikh in his
+clean white robes and turban, walking slowly to and fro, as if in
+expectation of seeing the professor.
+
+Frank hurried down, too eager to reach the garden to pause and look
+about at the Eastern aspect of everything around; but he found that he
+was not first, for there before him were the professor and the doctor
+just passing out, and he joined them just as they reached the Sheikh,
+who greeted them all with solemn dignity.
+
+"I have slept on the matter, O Excellencies," he said.
+
+"And now you think better of it?" said the doctor sharply.
+
+The Sheikh smiled.
+
+"I have thought much of it, Excellency," he said gravely, "but the
+matter was agreed upon last night.  All that remained was to find out
+the best way and the safest.  I feel that it must be as I said; we--my
+people and I--must journey through the desert to avoid the windings of
+the great river, taking with us such merchandise as the Mahdi's people
+will be glad to buy, and once at Khartoum or Omdurman we must trust to
+our good fortune about finding the prisoner.  Once we do find him the
+merchandise must go, and we shall trust to our fleet camels and
+knowledge of the desert to escape.  What do your Excellencies say?"
+
+The professor turned to Frank.
+
+"Will you tell him?" he said.  "It was your idea."
+
+Frank shrank for the moment, but mastering his hesitancy he turned to
+the old Sheikh, and rapidly growing earnest and warm, he vividly
+described his plans, while the old man stood stern and frowning,
+apparently receiving everything with the greatest disfavour, merely
+glancing once or twice at the doctor and then at the speaker, as
+allusions were made to the parts they were to play.  When the professor
+was mentioned the listener remained unmoved, but he frowned more
+markedly when the servant's name was mentioned.
+
+Frank worked himself up till in his eagerness his words came fast, as he
+strove hard to impress the Sheikh with the plausibility of his plans.
+But the old man remained unmoved, and when at last the speaker had said
+all that he could say there was a dead and chilling silence, the young
+man turning from his listener to look despairingly from the doctor to
+the professor, and back again, "The Sheikh cannot see it," said the
+young man despairingly; "but it seems easier to me now than ever."
+
+"Yes," said the doctor; "I feel that it might be done.  The idea grows
+upon me."
+
+"But you do not like it, Ibrahim," said the professor, looking hard in
+the solemn, impenetrable face before him.
+
+"There is the servant--the doctor's man," said the Sheikh gravely.  "I
+have not seen him."
+
+"You soon shall," said the professor.
+
+"Tell me," continued the Sheikh; "this young man--can he make cures--can
+he bind up wounds and attend to an injured or dying man?"
+
+"He has been my servant and has helped me for years," said the doctor.
+
+"Hah!"
+
+Then there was silence again, and Frank gazed at the deeply-lined, calm
+and impassive face before him with a feeling of resentment.
+
+"He will not do," thought the young man; "he is too slow and plodding.
+We want a brisk, dashing fellow, full of spirit and recklessness."
+
+He turned to the professor, and spoke a few words in Latin.
+
+The professor smiled.
+
+"You do not know Ibrahim yet," he said quietly.  "A young Englishman
+dashes at a thing without consideration; an Arab looks before he leaps,
+and examines the starting and the landing place.  Hush!"
+
+"Yes," said the Sheikh at last, and he bowed his head again and again as
+he spoke, evidently calculating every move in the great game of chess
+with live pieces in which he was about to engage.  "Yes; his Excellency
+here will be the learned Hakim--he _is_ a learned Hakim, and the people
+will crowd to his tent.  I could take him and his Excellency the
+professor, who speaks our tongue like I speak it myself, anywhere, and
+they would be welcome.  The idea is grand and cannot fail, but my heart
+grows faint when I think of his young Excellency here.  Could he bear to
+act like a slave for all the many weary months in that disguise?"
+
+"Yes," said Frank firmly.
+
+"And hold your peace, no matter what may befall?"
+
+"Yes.  I _will_" said Frank, through his set teeth.
+
+"We may come suddenly upon the prisoner in chains; we may see him beaten
+by his taskmaster.  Brothers love brothers," said the Sheikh gravely.
+"Could the young Excellency hold his peace and stand by looking on at
+such a time?"
+
+"Yes," said Frank, in a low, harsh voice: "it is to save my brother's
+life.  I would not speak to save my own."
+
+The old Sheikh's face was stern and rugged as ever; not a muscle
+twitched; but there was a new light in his eyes as they rested upon
+Frank's, and he uttered a low sigh of satisfaction.
+
+"The English are a great, brave nation," he said gravely.  "No wonder
+they make themselves masters of the world."
+
+"Then you are satisfied, Ibrahim?"
+
+"No, Excellency, not yet," replied the Sheikh.  "Take off those clothes
+and put on those that I will get, and you are the interpreter of the
+great Frankish Hakim.  That is enough.  The people will rush to you and
+call you brother.  His Excellency here, clothed as I will clothe him,
+that great, grand head white from the barber's razor, with that
+magnificent beard hanging down over his robe in front, and with the
+wisdom of the physician to cure the sufferers who will come--even the
+Khalifa and his greatest officers would come and bend to him.  Yes, all
+this is grand."
+
+"Well done," said the professor, with a sigh of relief.
+
+"His Excellency here _is_ a great doctor--one who can cure bad wounds?"
+asked the Sheikh.
+
+"One of the best in London," said the professor enthusiastically.  "He
+can almost perform miracles."
+
+"It is good," said the Sheikh gravely.  "He will find much work to do,
+for the Mahdi's followers die like flocks and herds in time of plague
+for want of help.  Now about his young Excellency here.  He will be the
+Hakim's slave?"
+
+"Yes; his learned slave, Ibrahim.  He is skilled in chemistry and
+science."
+
+"I do not know what chemistry and science mean, Excellency."
+
+"The power to perform natural miracles," said the professor.
+
+"It is enough; but he must do as he said.  As he is now he would be
+watched by suspicious eyes; I could not answer for his life.  As the
+Hakim's black slave who helps his master and is mute, yes, he will be
+safe too.  But this man--this servant?  What can he do?  Will he be
+black and mute?"
+
+"H'm, no," said the professor, hesitating.
+
+"Has he a brother in chains and misery whom he would die to save?"
+
+"H'm, no," said the professor again.  "Frank, lad," he said, in Latin,
+"I'm afraid Sam will not pass."
+
+"What will he do, then?" asked the Sheikh.
+
+"Attend on his master, the Hakim."
+
+"One of my young men can do that."
+
+"Hold the wounded when the Hakim bandages their cuts."
+
+"One of my young men would be safer far."
+
+"He knows the Hakim's ways, and will sponge the bullet-wounds and fetch
+the water bowl."
+
+"The Hakim's black slave should do all that, Excellency."
+
+"I'm afraid you are right," said the professor; "but I want to take him
+if we can.  Come, he is a capital cook."
+
+"A learned Hakim like his Excellency here would live on simple food,
+such as one of my young men could prepare."
+
+"Well, I don't know what to say, Ibrahim.  He is a very useful fellow."
+
+"But his being with us might mean making the Mahdi's followers doubt,
+and once they doubted it means death to us all."
+
+The professor's face was a study as he turned to Frank.
+
+"He's right, my lad; he's right."
+
+"It may mean ruin to our journey, even as men perish when they make for
+a water-hole, to find it dry.  Can he do anything else?"
+
+"Heaps of things," cried the professor.
+
+"But they are as nothing if they are not suited to our task, Excellency.
+Does he look to be an Englishman?"
+
+"A thorough-paced Cockney, Ibrahim, I am sorry to say."
+
+"Cockney, Excellency?"
+
+"Well, very English indeed."
+
+"Would he be painted black, Excellency?" said Ibrahim.
+
+"He'd only look like an imitation Christy Minstrel if he were, eh,
+Frank?" said the professor.
+
+"Would he have his head shaved like his Excellency the Hakim?" said the
+Sheikh.
+
+"Got him!" cried the professor excitedly.  "Here, Ibrahim, you wanted to
+know what he can do.  He's the Hakim's barber, and can shave a head."
+
+"Ah-h-h-h!" said the Sheikh, drawing out the ejaculation to an
+inordinate length.  "He can shave--and well?"
+
+"Splendidly!  Can't he, Morris?"
+
+"Oh, yes, excellently well," said the doctor, smiling.
+
+The Sheikh took off his turban and softly passed one hand over a head
+which was like a very old, deeply-stained billiard ball at the top, but
+was stubbly at the back and sides, as if it had not been touched by a
+barber for a week.
+
+"May he shave me, Excellency?" said the old man.  "I should like to see
+the man and whether he is skilful enough to deceive those who will watch
+him with jealous eyes."
+
+"Of course you can see him," said the doctor.  "He will be in my room."
+
+"Let's go, then, at once," said the professor.  "I say, Ibrahim, there
+need be no disguise about him.  He is a Frank, and the Hakim's slave."
+
+"Yes, that will do, Excellency," said the Sheikh.  "The Hakim's skill as
+a learned man and curer of the people's ills will cover all.  If this
+man is clever, too, as a barber every Moslem will look upon him as a
+friend.  Barber, surgeon, and the Hakim's slave.  Yes, that will do."
+
+Five minutes after the party were in the doctor's room, and upon the
+bell being answered by a native servant, Sam was fetched from his
+breakfast, to come up wondering, half expecting that something was
+wrong.
+
+"Sam," said the doctor gravely, "I wish you to shave this gentleman's
+head."
+
+"Certainly, sir.  I'll ring for some hot water."
+
+"No," said the professor; "we're going where hot water will be scarce--I
+mean that sort of hot water.  Do it with cold."
+
+"Right, sir," said the man, in the most unruffled way, and slipping off
+his coat he turned up his sleeves, placed a chair for the Sheikh, opened
+the doctor's dressing-case, brought out shaving-box, strop, and razors,
+and then made the old chief look a little askance as one of the latter
+was opened, examined, and laid down, while the brush and shaving-box
+were brought so vigorously into action, that in a very short time the
+Arab's head was thoroughly lathered, and left to soak.
+
+"I always prefer hot water, gentlemen," said Sam, confidentially; "it's
+better for the patient, and better for the razor, for it improves the
+edge.  But these are splendid tools, as I know."
+
+Whipping open one of the choice razors, and drawing the strop as if it
+were a short Roman sword, Sam made the Sheikh wince a little as the
+sharp blade was made to play to and fro and from end to end, changing
+from side to side, and with all the dash and light touch of a clever
+barbel, being finished off by sharp applications to the palm of the
+operator's hand.
+
+"There we are, sir," said Sam, who seemed to be quite in his element.
+"Don't squirm, sir; I won't cut you, nor hurt you either.  I was taught
+shaving by a first-class hand."
+
+"Don't talk so much, Sam," said Frank impatiently.  "We want you to
+shave this Arab gentleman carefully and well."
+
+"Well, ain't I trying my best, Master Frank?  Look at that, and look at
+that, and that.  Razor cuts beautifully."
+
+As he spoke he scraped off with long sweeps the white, soapy foam, which
+came away darkened with tiny swathes of blackish-grey stubble.
+
+"I call this a regular big shave.  Don't hurt, do I, sir?"
+
+The Arab uttered a grunt which might have meant yes or no.
+
+Sam took it to mean the latter.
+
+"Thought not, sir.  That's fine shaving-soap, sir; he--mollient; softens
+the stubble and the skin at the same time.  My word! this is a prime
+razor.  Only fancy, Mr Frank, being out here, shaving a native!"
+
+"Will you keep your tongue quiet!" whispered Frank angrily.  "This is a
+serious matter.  Mind what you're doing, and don't talk."
+
+"Don't ask a man to do impossibilities, sir," said the man appealingly;
+"did you ever know anyone shaved without the operator talking all the
+time?  It's natural, sir, and seems to make you shave cleaner.  I'm
+a-doing the very best I can.  I must talk, or I should get nicking his
+skin and spoil the job."
+
+"Then for goodness' sake talk," cried Frank petulantly.
+
+"Thankye, sir; now I can get on," and with wonderful celerity Sam
+scraped away with light hand till the last line of lather was taken off,
+a touch or two here and there given with the brush, and this fresh soap
+removed, after which the razor was closed, sponge and water applied, and
+a clean towel handed to the Sheikh, who received it with a grave smile
+and nod of the head.
+
+"Good," he said softly.  "Clever barber.  It is good."
+
+"Then you are satisfied?" said the professor eagerly.
+
+"Quite, Excellency.  Now I have no fear."
+
+Sam smiled too with satisfaction as he carefully wiped and re-stropped
+the razor before placing it in its case.  At the same time, though,
+there was a peculiar, inquisitive look in his eyes.  For the whole
+business seemed to be strange, and he looked longingly at Frank as if
+hoping that he would follow and explain, when the doctor said--
+
+"That will do, Samuel.  Go and have your breakfast."
+
+But Frank did not follow, for he was eager to hear what the Sheikh would
+say as soon as they were alone.
+
+Little was said, though, the old Arab being anxious to go and rejoin his
+followers staying in the village half a mile outside the town, promising
+to be back during the morning to talk over the arrangements for the
+venturesome journey.
+
+"Will he come back and hold to the promise?" said Frank to the
+professor.
+
+"For certain," was the reply.
+
+"But do you think he will prove business-like and go to work heart and
+soul in our service?"
+
+"I can only speak from past experience," replied the professor.  "I have
+always found him thoroughly trustworthy, and I feel sure he will be so
+now."
+
+"And about the preparations, the dress, provisions, and the many odds
+and ends we shall require?"
+
+"All that I shall leave to Ibrahim.  What you have to get ready is a
+couple of portmanteaus that can be swung one on either side of a strong
+camel by means of straps.  These must contain all your chemical and
+electrical apparatus in one, the doctor's instruments and medicines in
+the other, with an ample supply of lint, bandages, antiseptics,
+plaisters, and the like.  Chloroform, of course.  But there must be no
+superfluities.  As to dress, we must place ourselves in Ibrahim's
+hands."
+
+"What about weapons?" said Frank.  "Swords and revolvers, of course.
+What about rifles?"
+
+"I have brought two or three antiquated weapons for show; that is all.
+We are not going to fight.  Give up all thoughts of that."
+
+Frank stared at the speaker anxiously.
+
+"Surely we ought to carry revolvers," he said.
+
+"Surely we ought not.  If we go as men of war we shall fail.  If we go
+as men of peace we may succeed.  Leave all that to Ibrahim, and we shall
+know what is to be done when he comes back this morning.  Now then, the
+first thing to be done is to eat and drink."
+
+Frank sighed.
+
+"Without this we shall do no work."
+
+Frank knew the wisdom there was in these words, and he resigned himself
+to his fate, accompanying his companions to the hotel coffee-room to
+take their places at the table set apart for them, to become for the
+time being a mere group of the many, for the place was full of visitors
+staying, and others making a temporary sojourn before continuing their
+steamer's route, these to India or China, those back to Europe; while
+other tables were occupied by officers awaiting their orders to go up
+country, or go on making preparations for the advance of the troops
+already there, and further arrangements for those coming out by the
+great transports expected; for it was the common talk now that before
+long a large force was to march against the Mahdi's successor, and
+Gordon was to be at last avenged.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER SEVEN.
+
+BY MOONLIGHT.
+
+The people at the hotel were too much occupied with their own affairs to
+pay much heed to three ordinary visitors and their servant.  It was
+rumoured that one of them was a famous Egyptologist, but plenty of
+scientists came and went in this city of change, so that in a few hours
+Frank's anxiety as to the risk of their expedition being stopped, died
+out, and the visits of the Sheikh excited no more notice than those of a
+dragoman or letter of boats and donkeys who waited upon the tourists and
+arranged to take them to the pyramids, the river, or other objects of
+interest within easy reach.
+
+When Ibrahim appeared again about midday, he inquired anxiously about
+the amount of baggage the party intended to take, and seemed pleased
+with the narrow compass into which, under the professor's
+superintendence, it was to be condensed.  He then had a long discussion
+with the doctor, and when this was over it was announced that the Arab
+was going to be busy in the bazaar for the rest of the day, and that in
+the evening he would be at the door of the hotel with four camels and
+attendants to take the baggage that was ready, the rest being placed in
+the care of the manager ready for them upon their return from an
+expedition with the Sheikh.
+
+"That's prompt," said the professor.  "Are you satisfied, Frank?"
+
+"More than satisfied.  But about our disguises, our provisions for the
+journey, and other preparations?  We have done nothing yet."
+
+"There is nothing to do," said the professor quietly.
+
+"But our disguises?" said the doctor anxiously.
+
+"Ibrahim will see to all that.  We don't want to draw anyone's attention
+to the task we have in hand.  If we did the news would spread, and run
+like wildfire amongst the people, perhaps reach the enemy's camp."
+
+"But can we leave everything to this Arab Sheikh?"
+
+"Everything," said the professor, "as I have left things again and
+again.  Here is our position: I am known here, and it is no novelty for
+me to go upon an expedition with this old guide.  So all we have to do
+is to eat our dinner in peace, and when Ibrahim comes, mount our beasts
+and go off in the moonlight and silently steal away through the further
+parts of the city, and in a very short time be swallowed up in the
+mysterious gloom, travelling onward over the sand."
+
+"All night?" said the doctor.
+
+"Yes, all night, and in good time in the morning we shall have reached
+the tents of the Sheikh, where we shall have an early meal and sleep.
+When we shall go on depends upon the preparations there.  These will be
+extremely simple, but they will be sufficient.  Make your minds easy,
+and throw all the arrangement of the journey upon Ibrahim and me.  He
+will do his best, but as he said to me an hour ago, the success of our
+adventure must be left to fate."
+
+"But our preparations seem so small," said Frank uneasily.
+
+"Preparations for desert journeys are small from an Englishman's point
+of view.  A man here takes his camel, a bag of meal and another of
+dates, with a waterskin to fill when it is more than a day's journey to
+the next well.  The Sheikh expressed himself satisfied with our baggage,
+but in his eyes it is very large."
+
+"Well," said the doctor, "I have said very little, but I share Frank's
+uneasiness.  We seem to be making ridiculously small preparations.
+Surely we ought to go better prepared if we are to get to our journey's
+end."
+
+"We shall never get to it if we do," said the professor gruffly, "and
+the sooner you two try to fit yourselves to the necessities of a desert
+journey the better."
+
+"I'm ready to do anything," said the doctor, "but I do not want to fail
+from doing too little."
+
+"What more would you do than Ibrahim is doing?"
+
+"I can hardly say on the spur of the moment, but with the exception of
+my medicines and instruments, and Frank's chemicals and things, we seem
+as if we are going on the march in the clothes we stand up in."
+
+"Yes," said the professor coolly, "and those we are going to leave
+behind in Ibrahim's tents."
+
+"Is all this true, Frank?" said the doctor.
+
+"I suppose so," was the reply; "but certainly things are moving far more
+rapidly than I anticipated."
+
+"It is what you wished," said the professor.
+
+"Then all we have to do now is to be ready?"
+
+"Yes, that is all."
+
+It was in furtherance of this that directly after dinner Frank summoned
+Sam and told him that they were to start in about an hour.
+
+"So the guv'nor's been telling me, sir; but he says we're to leave
+nearly everything behind."
+
+"Yes, Sam; it will be safe enough here."
+
+"Well, it caps me, sir, that it do!  Mr Landon took pretty well
+everything away that I thought we wanted, and now he says that we're to
+leave the miserable little lot he chose himself."
+
+"Yes," said Frank quietly.
+
+"The only thing we're taking plenty of, it seems to me, is physic."
+
+"But you've packed the shaving tackle, Sam?" said Frank hastily.
+
+"Oh, yes; that goes in my pockets, sir; but one can't live on a wash and
+brush-up, and one wants something else on a journey besides soap.  Seems
+to me, sir, that the doctor thinks a little physic's the best thing to
+have with us, because it spoils the appetite and keeps people from
+wanting to eat.  He's taken plenty of care of the people out yonder, but
+I should have liked to see him provide a little more for us."
+
+"Don't be alarmed.  I daresay we shall find plenty."
+
+"From what the people here tell me about the desert, sir, I don't think
+we shall; but there, I'm not going to grumble, sir.  An hour's time,
+eh?"
+
+"Yes, in less now.  Then the Sheikh will be here with the camels."
+
+"To take us right away into the desert, sir.  Do you think he's safe?"
+
+"Yes, of course."
+
+"Well, I hope he is, sir; but if he means mischief and plays any games
+when he's got us right away from the police, I just hope he won't ask me
+to shave his head again."
+
+"Why?" said Frank, smiling.
+
+"Why, sir?  Well, because it won't be safe."
+
+It was about nine o'clock, the moon past the full, rising, richly golden
+of hue, in the east, and the air moist and fragrant with the cloying
+scent of the orange trees, when with a strange feeling of unreality
+about the whole proceeding, the little English party passed the groups
+of visitors smoking and chatting in the garden, or listening to the
+strains of a very excellent band.  It almost seemed to the doctor that
+he ought to go and occupy the seat he had found so pleasant on the
+previous night; but the professor was by his side talking earnestly of
+the peculiarities of a night ride in the desert, and Frank was close
+behind with Sam.
+
+In another minute they were in an open court, where, looking mysterious
+and strange, were a group of about a dozen camels and their leaders, in
+front of whom stood the figure of the Sheikh, his white robes and turban
+looking thoroughly in keeping with the strangely formed animals, four of
+which were keeping up a peculiar, querulous, discontented whining grunt,
+and turning their heads from side to side in their disgust at being
+laden with portmanteaus and bags, while their fellows had been allowed
+to go scot-free.
+
+And now all seemed more unreal than ever; and anything less like a start
+upon so dangerous an expedition it would have been impossible to
+imagine.
+
+"Ready, Ibrahim?" said the professor.
+
+"Yes, Excellency," replied the Sheikh; "it is past the time, and the
+camels are loaded."
+
+Frank looked round the court, where a couple of servants were standing
+beneath an arcade, while the moon was just peering over the house in a
+one-eyed fashion as if watching what was going on; but no one came from
+within to see the night start being made, and with the feeling of dreamy
+unreality increasing, the young man replied to the Sheikh's indication
+by stepping to the kneeling camel he was to ride.
+
+"Beg pardon, Mr Frank," whispered Sam, coming close to his side.  "Am I
+to ride one of them long-legged things?"
+
+"Yes, of course.  You're not afraid?"
+
+"Afraid, sir?  Not me.  I've rid most everything, and I meant to have
+gone up to the Zoo for a lesson in camels, only there warn't time.  I'm
+not afraid, and I'm going to do it, but I do begin to feel as if I ought
+to be tied on."
+
+However, Sam climbed to his strange saddle, as did the rest, and a few
+minutes later the silent-pacing, long-legged animals were following
+their leader out of the court and into the lighted road, down which they
+stole on in the moonlight like strange creatures in a picture, passing
+people, but taking no one's attention, while more than ever the whole
+scene appeared to the party like a portion of some dream.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER EIGHT.
+
+THE DESERT.
+
+"How are you getting on, Sam?" said Frank, after they had progressed
+about a mile, during which the outskirts of the city had given place to
+garden, cultivated field, trees dotted here and there, and then hedges
+which looked weird, ghastly, and strange in the moonlight, being
+composed of those fleshy, nightmare-looking plants of cactus growth, the
+prickly pears, with their horrible thorns, while more and more the way
+in front began to spread out wild, desolate and strange in the soft,
+misty, silvery grey of the moonlight, through which the long-legged
+animals stalked, casting weird shadows upon the soft, sandy road, and
+save for one thing the passing of the little train would have been in an
+oppressive silence, for the spongy feet of the birdlike animals rose and
+fell without a sound.
+
+"How'm I getting on, sir?" was the reply.  "Well, about as bad as a man
+can.  Look at me, sir; there I am.  That's my shadder.  I don't know
+what our servants at home would say to see me going along over the sand
+this how.  Look at my shadder, sir; looks like a monkey a-top of a
+long-legged shed."
+
+"The shadows do look strange, Sam."
+
+"Strange, sir?  They _look_ horrid.  Just like so many ghosts out for a
+holiday, and it's us.  And look at what makes the shadders.  They look
+creepy in the moonshine.  Why, if we was out on a country road now in
+dear old England, and the police on duty saw us we should give 'em
+fits."
+
+"Rather startling, certainly," said Frank.  "It does look a weird
+procession."
+
+"Seems a mad sort of a set out altogether, sir: three British gentlemen
+and a respectable servant going out for a ride in the night in a place
+like this a-top of these excruciating animals, along with so many silent
+blacks dressed in long white sheets.  It all seems mad to me, sir, and
+as if we ought to be in bed.  I fancy I am sometimes, and having
+uncomfortable dreams, like one does after cold boiled beef for supper,
+and keep expecting to wake up with a pain in the chest.  But I don't,
+for there we are sneaking along in this silent way with our tall
+shadders seeming to watch us.  Ugh!  It's just as if we were going to do
+something wicked somewhere."
+
+"It's all so strange, Sam," said Frank quietly.  "You are not used to
+it."
+
+"That's true enough, sir, and I don't feel as if I ever should be.  Just
+look at this thing!  It's like an insult to call it a saddle.  Saddle!
+why it's more like--I don't know what; and I've been expecting to have
+an accident with this stick-up affair here in front.  How do you get on
+with your legs, sir?"
+
+"Pretty well," said Frank, smiling.  "I've managed better during the
+past ten minutes."
+
+"I wish you'd show me how you do it, sir, for I get on awfully, and I'm
+that sore that I'm beginning to shudder."
+
+"It's a matter of use, Sam.  Try and sit a little more upright, like
+this."
+
+"Like that, sir?" said the man, excitedly.  "No, thankye, sir.  It's bad
+enough like this.  I suppose I must grin and bear it.  Here, I've tried
+straightforward striddling like one would on a donkey, but this beast
+don't seem to have no shape in him.  Then I've tried like a lady,
+sitting left-handed with my legs, and then after I've got tired that way
+for a bit, and it don't work comfortable, I've tried right-handed with
+my legs.  But it's no good.  Bit ago I saw one of these niggers shut his
+legs up like a pocket foot-rule, and I says to myself, `That's the way,
+then;' so I began to pull my legs up criss-cross like a Turk in a
+picture."
+
+"Well, did that do?" said Frank, listening to the man, for the remarks
+kept away his own troubled thoughts.
+
+"Nearly did for me, sir.  I had to claw hold like a kitten to the top of
+a basket of clothes, or I should have been down in the sand, with this
+wicked-looking brute dancing a hornpipe in stilts all over me.  Ugh, you
+beast! don't do that."
+
+"What's the matter?" said Frank, as the man shuddered and exclaimed at
+the animal he rode.
+
+"Oh, I do wish he wouldn't, sir.  It's just as if he don't like me, and
+does it on purpose."
+
+"Does what?"
+
+"Turns his head and neck round to look at me, just like a big giant
+goose, and he opens and shuts his mouth, and leers and winks at me, sir.
+It gives me quite a turn.  It's bad enough when he goes on steady, but
+when he does that I feel just as I did when we crossed the Channel, and
+as if I must go below.  I say, sir, can a man be sea-sick with riding on
+a camel?"
+
+"I don't know about sea-sick, Sam," said Frank, laughing outright, "but
+I really did feel very uncomfortable at first.  The motion is so
+peculiar."
+
+"Ain't it, sir?" cried Sam eagerly.  "Beg your pardon sir, for saying
+it, but I am glad you felt it too.  It upset me so that I got thinking
+I'd no business to have left my pantry, because I wasn't up to this sort
+of thing."
+
+"Cheer up, and make the best of it," said Frank quietly.  "You'll soon
+get accustomed to what is very new to us all."
+
+"I will, sir.  I'll try, but everything seems to be going against me.
+Ugh!  Look at that now.  Ugh! the smell of it!"
+
+"Smell?  Why, I only notice the professor's pipe."
+
+"Yes, sir, that's it.  It seems horrid now, and there he sits with that
+long, snaky pipe and his legs twisted in a knot, smoking away as
+comfortably as the old Guy Fox in the tablecloth that I shaved.  He went
+to sleep and nodded, for I watched him, and he keeps on see-sawing and
+looking as if he'd tumble off; but he seems to be good friends with his
+camel, for it kept on balancing him and keeping him up.  I wish I could
+go to sleep too."
+
+"Well, try," said Frank.
+
+"Try, sir?  What, to wake up with a bump, and sit in the sand seeing
+this ridgment of legs and shadows going off in the distance?  No, thank
+you, sir.  They tell me there's lions and jackals and hyaenas out here.
+No, thankye, sir; I'm going to fight it out."
+
+Just then the professor checked his camel and tried to bring it
+alongside of the pair behind, when a struggle ensued, the quaint-looking
+creature refusing to obey the rein or to alter its position in the
+train, whining, groaning, and appealing against force being used to
+place it where it made up its mind there must be danger.
+
+"That's how those brutes that are carrying the luggage went on, sir,"
+whispered Sam to Frank.  "Groaning and moaning and making use of all
+sorts of bad language.  One of 'em kep' it up just like a human being,
+and it was as if he was threatening to write to the Society for the
+Prevention of Cruelty to Animals for them to put a stop to our ill-using
+him and tying heavy things on his back and making creases with ropes on
+his front--I mean his underneath, sir."
+
+Just then one of the Sheikh's followers, who had seen the trouble, came
+from where he was walking beside the baggage camels, and led the
+obstinate animal to where it was required to go, and it ceased its
+objections.
+
+"Fine animals for displaying obstinacy, Frank," said the professor.
+
+"Yes; they'd beat donkeys of the worst type."
+
+"I daresay they would; but they have plenty of good qualities to make up
+for their bad ones.  How do you like the riding?"
+
+"I'll tell you when I've had some more experience.  At present it would
+not be fair."
+
+"Perhaps not," said the professor.  "How do you get on, Sam?"
+
+The butler groaned.
+
+"Hullo!  Is it as bad as that?"
+
+"Worse, sir, ever so much.  Couldn't I have a donkey, sir?  I saw some
+fine ones in Cairo well up to my weight."
+
+"I'm afraid not, Sam.  But you'll soon get used to the animal you are
+riding."
+
+"Never, sir, never," said Sam.
+
+"Nonsense, man!  Once you get used to the poor creatures you will think
+it delightful.  I could go to sleep on mine, and trust it to keep
+ambling along."
+
+"Do what, sir?"
+
+"Ambling gently."
+
+"Then yours is a different sort, sir, to mine.  Ambling's going like a
+lady's mare does in the Park, isn't it?"
+
+"Yes, Sam; that's quite correct, I believe."
+
+"This one don't, sir, a bit.  If you shut your eyes and hold tight, sir,
+you forget that he's an animal, but begin thinking he must be what he
+seems like to me--a sort of giant sea-goose with you on his back and him
+swimming in rough water and going up and down horrid."
+
+"Oh, that's the peculiarity of the creature's pace.  I'm used to it, and
+I find the elasticity most enjoyable."
+
+"Elastic, sir?  Yes, that's just it, sir; elastic.  A bit back he was
+going on like an Indy-rubber ball; one o' that sort, sir, as is all wind
+and skin.  Made me wish he was one, and that I'd got a pin in my hand."
+
+"Oh, never mind, my lad," said the professor good-humouredly; "its rough
+work to learn riding a horse, but once you've mastered the task it's
+pleasant enough.  What do you think of the desert, Frank?"
+
+"Do you consider that we have reached the desert now?" was the reply, as
+Sam fell back a little, leaving them to converse.
+
+"Oh, yes; we've left the cultivated ground behind, and right away south
+and west now, saving a _few_ oases, there's nothing but the sand
+covering all about here the ruins of ancient cities.  I believe if we
+dug anywhere here we should find traces--buildings, temples, or tombs."
+
+"Has there been cultivation, too, here?"
+
+"No doubt.  It only wants water, sandy as it is, for it to break out
+blushing with soft green."
+
+"Where does the Nile lie from here?"
+
+"Away to the left."
+
+"Shall we see its waters when the morning comes?"
+
+"No; we are going farther and farther away to a bit of an oasis where
+the Sheikh's people are gathered with their flocks.  They find pasture
+there at this time of year, and a little employment with the travellers
+who come to Cairo.  In the summer time, when the city is pretty well
+empty, they go right away to some high ground where it is rocky and
+fairly fertile.  We shall reach the present camp before the sun gets hot
+in the morning."
+
+"How is the doctor getting on?" asked Frank, after a pause.
+
+"Pretty well.  It makes him a little irritable, so I don't think I'd ask
+him.  He is enjoying the night ride, though."
+
+Sam sighed and said to himself--
+
+"He says that because he wants to make the best of it, but I'm not going
+to believe my poor guv'nor's enjoying this.  He's wishing himself back
+in Wimpole Street, I know."
+
+"What's that?" said Frank suddenly.
+
+"What?  I see nothing."
+
+"No, no.  I mean that wild cry."
+
+"Only a jackal.  I daresay if you listen you will hear another answer
+it.  Pleasant note, isn't it?"
+
+"Horrible!  It sounded like some poor creature in pain."
+
+"Hungry, perhaps," said the professor coolly.  "Fine, wild, weird
+prospect, this, eh?"
+
+"It seems very dream-like and strange."
+
+"Yes, it impressed me like that at first.  After a while you begin to
+think of how delightful it is, and what a change from pacing over the
+burning sand in the daylight with the sun making the air quiver and glow
+like a furnace, and your mouth turn dry and lips crack with the parching
+you have to undergo."
+
+"Shall we have to journey much by night?"
+
+"Oh, yes; we shall do most of our marching then, but we need not trouble
+about that.  Ibrahim will do what is best.  I have had a long talk with
+him, and he proposes to go in a roundabout way for the enemy's camp."
+
+"What! not go straight there?"
+
+"No; it would mean suspicion.  We must not go there unasked."
+
+"Landon!" said Frank appealingly.
+
+"It is quite right, and even if it takes time it will be the surest way.
+Ibrahim says that if the Hakim performs a few cures as we get nearer,
+the news thereof will reach the Khalifa's camp, where men die off in
+hundreds, and after a time he will be sure to send for us.  Just think
+of the difference in our reception."
+
+Frank nodded.
+
+"In the one case we should be received with suspicion and most probably
+turned back, perhaps be made prisoners; while, if at the new Mahdi's
+wish we are sent for, we go there in triumph, and are respected and well
+treated by everyone."
+
+"Yes, yes; but the time will be passing away so swiftly, and that poor
+fellow lying in agony and despair."
+
+"Yes, but the more reason for being cautious.  We must not build the
+castle of our hopes upon the sand, Frank.  I know it seems very hard,
+and no doubt I sound cold-blooded for agreeing so readily to this Arab's
+proposals, but I speak from ten years' experience of the old fellow.  He
+has thrown himself heart and soul into the adventure, and he is well
+worthy of our trust; so, even at the expense of going against your own
+wishes now and then, give way and follow out the old man's advice, even
+when he would be ready to give way to you."
+
+"I'll do my best," said Frank; "but it seems to me that I have already
+bound _myself_ down to profound obedience in all things by undertaking
+to go as a slave."
+
+"Well, yes, that does bind you, certainly," said the professor.
+
+"But what about these men that the Sheikh is taking with us?  They will
+be in the secret."
+
+"Of course."
+
+"Suppose they betray what I am."
+
+"That would mean betraying their Sheikh.  You need have no fear of
+that."
+
+"Well, let's talk about something else.  We are bound now for the
+Sheikh's encampment.  What is going to be done first when we get there?"
+
+"We put off Europe and put on Africa as far as is necessary."
+
+"Hah!" said Frank, with a sigh.
+
+"What does that mean, my lad?" said the professor sternly.  "Are you
+beginning to repent?"
+
+"Repent!" said Frank between his teeth.  "What a question!  I am longing
+to commence, for so far everything has been preparation."
+
+"And a very brief preparation," said the professor, "if you come to
+think of how short a time it is since you dashed in upon us after dinner
+that evening with your news."
+
+"Well, don't reproach me, Landon."
+
+"Not I, my lad.  I know what you must feel.  All I want of you now is
+for you to play the stoic.  Make up your mind that you have done your
+utmost to set the ball rolling; now let it roll, and only give it a
+touch when you are asked.  Believe me that you will be doing your best
+then."
+
+"I will try," said Frank firmly.  "Only give me time.  I am schooling
+myself as hardly as I can.  It is a difficult part to play."
+
+The professor reached out his hand and gripped his young companion's
+shoulder firmly, riding on for some minutes without relaxing his grasp,
+the touch conveying more in the way of sympathy than any words would
+have done, while the discomforts of the novel ride seemed to die away,
+and the soft dreaminess of the night grew soothing; the vast silvery
+grey expanse, melting away in its vastness, became lit-up with a faint
+halo of hope, and with his spirits rising, Frank seemed another man when
+the professor spoke again--
+
+"Bob Morris will be feeling neglected."
+
+"Go to him, then," said Frank quietly.
+
+"No; you go first.  But there's nothing like making a beginning at
+once."
+
+"In what way?" asked Frank, for his companion paused.
+
+"Begin treating him as what he is to be till our task is done--the
+learned Hakim; and begin to school yourself into acting as his slave."
+
+"Now?"
+
+"Why not?  I spoke of him just now as Bob Morris.  That's the last time
+till we are safely under the British flag again."
+
+"Yes, you are right," said Frank, and urging on his camel the animal
+stepped out and passed of its own accord alongside that of the doctor,
+who uttered a sigh of relief as he saw who it was.
+
+"That's better, Frank," he said.  "I was beginning to feel a bit lonely,
+for this ride is not very cheerful, and the bringing of fresh muscles
+into play is producing aches and pains."
+
+Frank raised his hands to his head, and bowed down.
+
+"Humph!" ejaculated the doctor; "not such a very bad imitation of a
+salaam.  What have you two been talking about?"
+
+Frank raised his hand, and saw that his tall shadow was repeating the
+action, as he pointed straight ahead.
+
+"About our journey's end, eh?" said the doctor.  "That's right.  I shall
+be glad to get there and lie down, if it is only upon the sand.  How do
+you get on with your camel?"
+
+Frank made a despairing gesture.
+
+"Same here," said the doctor.  "I wish we could have had some lessons
+first.  But use is second nature, and I suppose this weary, aching
+sensation of being waved about in the air will soon pass off.  But I
+say, Frank, my lad."
+
+Frank turned to him.
+
+"There, that will do for to-night," said the doctor pettishly.  "I
+haven't cut your tongue out yet, so just talk like a Christian.  This
+vast open place seems to sit upon my spirits, especially now that we're
+making this night journey instead of lying comfortably in our beds.
+Talk to me.  You've done acting enough for the present."
+
+"Very well," said Frank quietly; "but Landon thinks with me, that the
+sooner I begin to play my part the sooner I shall make myself perfect."
+
+"Well, yes, of course," grunted the doctor; "but leave it till we put on
+our costumes.  I say, I think this Sheikh is all right."
+
+"Yes; I have perfect faith in him now."
+
+"So have I.  He's a fine old fellow; there is no doubt about that.  But
+Frank, my lad, I don't think I could have kept this up much longer if
+you had gone on with that dumb-motion business.  It only wanted that to
+give me the horrors, for this night ride seems to be about the most
+mysteriously weird business possible to conceive.  Just look at the
+ghostly appearance of the camels and their leaders, the long, strongly
+marked shadows, and the mysterious light!  I can't get away from the
+idea that it is all a dream."
+
+"That is how it has been impressing us," replied Frank.
+
+"And no wonder.  Everything is terribly unreal, and between ourselves I
+am beginning to lose heart."
+
+"You?" said Frank reproachfully.  "You, the calm, grave surgeon,
+accustomed to terrible scenes, to awful emergencies where men's lives
+depend upon your coolness and that calm, firm manner in which you face
+all difficulties!"
+
+"Yes, at home and in my proper place.  But here I seem to be
+masquerading--playing, as it were."
+
+"Playing!" said Frank reproachfully.
+
+"Well, I hardly mean that, my dear boy," said the doctor softly; "but
+all this is so strange and--well, yes--risky."
+
+"Yes, it is risky," said Frank sadly, "but--"
+
+"Yes, I know," said the doctor, interrupting; "I do think of why we are
+doing it, and I can't help shrinking a bit and doubting my nerve to
+carry it all through.  If I break down in any way I shall sacrifice the
+liberty if not the lives of you all.  It is this that makes me feel
+doubts about my nerve."
+
+"I have none whatever," said Frank quietly.  "You know how often you
+have talked to me about the operations you have performed."
+
+"Well, yes, I have talked to you a good deal both before and after some
+of them.  Harry and I always opened out our hearts to one another, and
+when he went away he asked me to make you his substitute--to take his
+place with you."
+
+"So like Hal," said Frank softly.  "Well, and so you have."
+
+"Have I, lad?  Well, I have tried, and it has been very pleasant to have
+you come to me to chat over your experiences and successes and failures,
+and to tell you mine."
+
+"You have made more of a man of me," said Frank softly; "often and often
+when I have felt that I was only an ignorant, blundering boy."
+
+"I never saw much of the ignorance or blundering," said the doctor
+quietly.  "You were always too enthusiastic over your studies for that."
+
+"Never mind about my qualities," said Frank, with a little laugh; "it is
+like trying to put me off from talking about you.  As I was going to
+say, don't you remember telling me that whenever you were going to
+perform an operation upon some poor suffering fellow-creature you always
+felt a strong sensation of shrinking and want of nerve?"
+
+"Of course.  I always do."
+
+"And that you always prayed that your efforts might be rightly guided?"
+
+"Yes," said the doctor, very softly and slowly.
+
+"And that the next day when you went into the operating theatre and
+stood there with the patient before you, the students and surgeons with
+your assistants about you ready for the task, you always felt as calm
+and cool as possible, and that your nerves were like steel?"
+
+"Yes!  It is so."
+
+"Then why should you feel doubt now?  I have none."
+
+The doctor was silent for a few minutes as they rode on through the
+mysterious-looking night, their shadows bowing and undulating on the
+sand.
+
+"I suppose it is the same," he said at last, "with the soldiers going
+into some engagement.  There is the feeling of nervousness which they
+suffer from till the stern work begins, and then--well, they act as
+brave men do act."
+
+"Even if they are generals in the great fight with disease and death,"
+said Frank gravely.  "I wish I could feel as sure of our ultimate
+success as I do of your being perfectly calm and self-contained in all
+you do."
+
+"I should be, my dear boy," said the doctor, "if I could only get rid of
+the feeling that I shall be an impostor."
+
+Frank laughed pleasantly.
+
+"That feeling troubling you again?" he said.  "How absurd!  Are you
+going to cheat the poor creatures you attend with sham medicines?"
+
+"Am I going to do what?" said the doctor indignantly.
+
+"And play tricks with the wounds they are suffering from?"
+
+"My dear Frank!"
+
+"And make believe to extract bullets and sew up wounds, or set broken
+bones?"
+
+"My good lad, are you talking in your sleep?  Did I ever do anything but
+my very best for the poor creatures to whom my poor skill was
+necessary--did I ever give less attention to the humblest patient than I
+do to the wealthiest or highest in position?"
+
+"Never," said Frank warmly.  "That big, generous disposition of yours
+would never have allowed it."
+
+"Then why did you talk in so absurd a strain?"  Frank laughed merrily,
+and for the time being he was the schoolboy again.
+
+"Please, sir," he said mockingly, "it wasn't me.  Answer me first," he
+cried.  "Why do you talk about feeling like an impostor?  Why,"
+continued the young man warmly, "I feel as if through my plan I am going
+to heap blessings upon mine enemy's head.  I am taking you through this
+country, amongst these cruelly savage people, to do nothing but good.
+Wherever you go your name will be blessed; they will think of the Great
+Hakim as long as they live."
+
+"Look here, young man," said the doctor playfully, "I've made a mistake
+to-night.  You began to play your part very nicely, and you were as
+quiet as a dumb waiter--that old black mahogany one in the dining-room
+at home.  Then for company's sake I stopped you, and here is the
+consequence.  You took advantage of the liberty given you, and at once
+developed into a base flatterer, putting your adulation into all the
+flowery language you could muster.  Now, no more of it, if you please.
+There, to speak soberly and well: Frank, lad, I am not the great,
+learned Hakim of your young imagination, but the hard-working student
+who tries his best to acquire more and more knowledge of our fallen
+human nature so as to fight against death like an earnest man.  I know
+something of my profession, and I work hard, and always shall, to know
+more, so as to apply my skill in the best way.  Please God, I hope to do
+a great deal of good during this our journey, and I promise you that I
+will think only of this application of my knowledge.  Yes, I feel now
+that I can go on and face all that I have to do, for I shall not be such
+a sorry impostor, after all."
+
+"Isn't it my turn now for a chat?" said the professor.  "You two seem to
+be having a most interesting discussion, and it's very dull back here.
+The Sheikh is fast asleep on his camel, and poor Sam has become
+speechless with misery, in spite of all I could say to him about
+mastering the art of camel-riding.  He says he can't get over the
+feeling that he is at sea.  How are you two getting on?"
+
+"Better, I suppose," said the doctor, "for I have not thought so much of
+the motion lately.  I suppose I'm getting used to it."
+
+"And you, Frank?"
+
+"I had forgotten it too till you spoke.  But I am utterly tired out.
+How long will it be before we get to the tents?"
+
+"Oh, hours yet," said the professor cheerfully.
+
+"What!" cried the doctor and Frank in a breath.
+
+"Not till well on in the morning," said the professor; and then, as his
+companions turned to gaze at one another in dismay, "but we're going to
+halt soon, to rest the camels and--ourselves."
+
+
+
+CHAPTER NINE.
+
+THE HAKIM BEGINS.
+
+The professor had hardly finished speaking when something dark loomed up
+through the silvery gloom, and the camels began making a peculiar,
+complaining sound, while they slightly increased their pace and soon
+after stopped short, craning their necks and muttering and grumbling
+peevishly.
+
+A water-hole had been reached, where the beasts were refreshed, after
+they had been relieved of their living burdens--those which were loaded
+with the travellers' baggage having to be content with a good drink and
+then folding their legs to crouch in the sand and rest.
+
+"Yes, it's all very well, Mr Frank," said Sam, "but I don't believe
+that thing which carries me is half so tired as I am.  Oh my!
+See-sawing as I've been backwards and forwards all these hours, till my
+spinal just across the loins feels as if it had got a big hinge made in
+it and it wanted oiling."
+
+"Lie flat down upon your back and rest it."
+
+"But won't the grass be damp, sir?"
+
+"Grass?" said Frank, smiling.  "Where are you going to find it?"
+
+"I forgot, sir," said the man wearily.  "No grass; all sand.  That comes
+of being used to riding in a Christian country."
+
+"That's right," said the professor, joining them, for Frank had set Sam
+the example and was lying flat on the soft sand.  "I've just been
+telling the Hakim to do so.  Don't sit down to rest out here; lie flat
+whenever you get a chance.  It does wonders.  Are you thirsty, Frank?"
+
+"Oh no," was the reply.
+
+"That comes of travelling by night.  If we had come this distance under
+the burning sun we should have been parched."
+
+"Better move, hadn't we?" said Frank, a minute or two later, as he
+glanced significantly towards Sam.
+
+"I think we had," replied the professor, laughing.  "I thought it was
+one of the camels."
+
+The sound that came regularly was not unlike that uttered by one of the
+grumbling creatures, but it was due to their man's ways of breathing in
+his sleep, for not many seconds had elapsed before he had forgotten all
+his weariness, and the troubles of the first lesson in camel-riding, in
+a deep slumber which lasted through the two hours' halt, during which
+the Sheikh and his men had sat together and smoked in silence, while
+Frank and his companions had lain chatting in a low tone about the
+beauty of the moon-silvered rocks and the soft, transparent light which
+spread around.
+
+At last the Sheikh rose and stalked softly towards them in his long
+white garments, looking thoroughly in keeping with the scene, and made
+his customary obeisance.
+
+"Are their Excellencies rested?" he asked gravely.
+
+"Oh, yes; let us get on," said the professor, looking at his watch.
+"Four o'clock.  I did not know it was so late.  How are you, Frank?
+Stiff?"
+
+"Terribly."
+
+"Yes," said the doctor, stretching himself.  "We have been giving some
+idle muscles work to do that they had never had before."
+
+"Their Excellencies will soon be as much used to it as their friend,"
+said the Sheikh; and he led the way towards where the camels crouched,
+some moving their under jaws, chewing after their fashion, others with
+their long necks stretched straight out and their heads nestling in the
+sand.
+
+"Here, Sam," cried the professor, breaking the silence that reigned
+around, and his words were echoed from the rocks on the far side of the
+water-holes.
+
+But the man's reply was only a gurgling, camel-like snore.
+
+"Sound enough," said the professor; and he was stepping towards him, but
+Frank interposed.
+
+"I'll wake him," he said.  "The poor fellow feels fagged and
+low-spirited.  We must not be hard upon him.  He hasn't our motive to
+spur him on."
+
+"No," said the professor, "but he must try and brace himself up a bit."
+
+"Give him time," replied Frank, and he bent down on one knee--pretty
+stiffly too--and laid his hand upon the sleeper's breast.
+
+"Come, Sam," he said; "we're ready to start."
+
+But there was no reply, and the touch had to be followed up by a shake,
+and that by one far more vigorous, before there was a loud yawn, and two
+fists were thrown out in a vigorous stretch.
+
+"What's the matter?  Night bell?"
+
+"Wake up, man."
+
+"Eh?  Who is it?--Where am I?--You, Mr Frank?"
+
+"Yes.  Your camel is waiting for its load.  Up with you!"
+
+"Oh, Mr Frank," moaned the poor fellow, "never mind me.  I'm about done
+for."
+
+"Nonsense, man!  Don't let the professor see how weak you are."
+
+"But I can't help it, sir.  I'm that sore all over that it's just as if
+I'd been broken.  Go on and leave me; I ain't a bit o' good."
+
+"Leave you here in the desert to die?"
+
+"Yes, sir; it don't matter a bit.  I'm regularly done for."
+
+"Nonsense!  Rouse yourself like a man."
+
+"I couldn't do it, sir.  I only want to lie still and die decently.
+Daresay the next people who come along will cover me over with a bit of
+sand."
+
+Frank laughed.
+
+"I do call that unfeeling of you, sir," moaned the poor fellow.  "It's
+heartless, that it is!"
+
+"I can't help it, Sam," said Frank merrily; "the idea is so absurd."
+
+"What, me dying out here in the desert?"
+
+"No, what you said about being covered over with the sand."
+
+"I don't see anything absurd, sir.  It's very horrible."
+
+"Not a bit," said Frank.  "There wouldn't be anything to bury."
+
+"What!" said Sam, rising up on one elbow and staring wildly at the
+speaker.
+
+"You see, there are the vultures to begin with, and then there would be
+the jackals."
+
+"Ugh!  Don't, Mr Frank," cried the poor fellow, shuddering.  "I never
+thought about them.  That's worse than the camel."
+
+"Ever so much," said Frank.  "Come, be a man.  How do you spell
+`pluck'?"
+
+"I dunno, sir," whined the poor fellow.  "I suppose it would be with a
+very small `p'."
+
+"Try and spell it with a big capital, Sam.  Come, don't let the doctor
+feel ashamed of you."
+
+"But I don't seem to mind anything now, sir."
+
+"Yes, you do, Sam.  You came to help us, didn't you?"
+
+"Yes, sir, I did, but--"
+
+"Are you going to break down over the first difficulty."
+
+"No, I ain't, sir.  I--oh dear!--oh my!--I--ugh! what a scrunch!--Hah!
+Would you mind lending me a hand, sir?"
+
+"Not a bit, Sam," said Frank.  "I'll help you in any way, as you will
+me; but I want to see you master all this."
+
+"That's right, sir.  Here goes, then."
+
+The next moment the man had made a brave effort, and he walked at once
+to his camel and mounted, Frank standing by as the ungainly beast
+see-sawed to and fro and sprawled out its legs, and grumbled and snarled
+as it rose upright.
+
+"Don't make that row!" cried Sam.  "You ought to be used to it by this
+time.  That's done it, Mr Frank.  Don't tell the doctor what I said."
+
+"Not I, Sam.  Bravo!  You have plenty of pluck, you see."
+
+"Have I, sir?" said the man pitifully.  "I began to think I hadn't a
+bit.  It had got to the bottom somewhere."
+
+"Yes," said Frank; "now keep it up at the top."
+
+In another minute the little camel train was steadily pacing on again
+over the sands, with the air feeling fresher.  The moon, too, was
+beginning to cast the shadows in a different direction, while the whole
+party had become silent, no one feeling the slightest inclination to
+talk.
+
+But it did not seem long now before the silvery radiance of the moon
+began to grow pale before the soft opalescence in the east, and the
+far-spreading desert sands took a less mystic tint.  Then all at once
+far on high there was a soft, roseate speck, which grew orange and then
+golden as if it were the advance guard of the gathering array of
+dazzling hues which now rapidly advanced till the east blazed with a
+glory wondrous to behold.
+
+"Your first desert sunrise, Frank," said the professor quietly, as he
+saw the young man's rapt gaze.  "Ah, we have some splendid sky effects
+here to make up for the want of flower and tree!  The desert has glories
+of its own, as you will see."
+
+For the next half hour Frank forgot his weariness, the want of sleep,
+and his anxieties in the grandeur of the scene around, as the glories of
+the day expanded till the sun rose well above the horizon, sending the
+shadows of the camels long and strange over the yielding sand.  Then
+hour after hour the monotony increased, and the silence grew more
+oppressive, the heat harder to bear, and but for the calm, contented
+ease exhibited by the Sheikh and his men, and the example they felt
+bound to show to their followers, both the Doctor and Frank would have
+put in a plea for another halt.
+
+As it was they sat firmly as they could, swaying to and fro with the
+monotonous motion of the camels, and growing more and more faint, while
+at last Frank spoke to the Sheikh to set one of his young men to keep an
+eye upon Sam, for he felt at times too much irritated to meet the poor
+fellow's pleading eyes, and followed close behind the professor, who
+kept turning in his seat to make some remark to cheer him up.
+
+Then apparently all at once, after he had been straining his eyes vainly
+over the far-spreading, interminable plain in search of their
+halting-place, the Sheikh rode alongside, smiling and apparently as
+fresh as when they had started, to point away in the direction they were
+going.
+
+"The tents, Excellency," he said.
+
+Frank felt as if he had taken a draught of renewed life, as he raised
+his hand to his brow and shaded his eyes from the sun.
+
+"I see nothing," he said.
+
+"Look again, Excellency.  Your eyes are not used to the desert.  There,
+straight past the Hakim's camel."
+
+"Ah, yes!  I can see something like a heap of sand."
+
+"Look again in half an hour," said the Sheikh smiling, "and that which
+you see will have changed to something more than a heap of sand."
+
+"Can you make out the tents, Landon?" said Frank.
+
+"Oh, no; my eyes are not like Ibrahim's," was the reply; "but I take it
+for granted, and I shall be very glad to get there.  I want my breakfast
+badly.  I say, Ibrahim, there will be some coffee?"
+
+"I sent one of my sons yesterday with two camel-loads of necessaries,
+Excellency," replied the old Arab.  "They can see us coming, for they
+will have been watching, and there will be all their Excellencies need."
+
+"Come, Frank, that does you good, doesn't it?" said the professor.
+
+"Oh, yes; and I shall, I hope, make a better show of endurance after a
+day or two."
+
+"The young Excellency has done well," said the Sheikh, smiling
+pleasantly.  "The way is long; he is not accustomed to travelling like
+this, and his mind is not at rest.  He and the Hakim have borne the ride
+well."
+
+"Does the Hakim know that we are in sight?" said Frank, who was watching
+the bent, weary figure in front.
+
+"No, Excellency."
+
+"I'll go and cheer him up with the news," said the professor, urging on
+his camel, while Frank checked his to let Sam's long-legged steed come
+abreast, and boldly now met the poor fellow's appealing eyes.
+
+"It's you at last, Mr Frank," said the man faintly.  "I've been asking
+that native chap how long a man could go on like this before he's
+knocked over by the sun."
+
+"And what does he say?" replied Frank cheerily.
+
+"Only grunted like this beast does.  I might just as well have asked
+it."
+
+"Feel very tired, then?"
+
+"Tired, sir?  I feel as if--as if--as if--"
+
+"As if you wanted rest and a good breakfast."
+
+"Rest?--breakfast?" said Sam faintly.  "Oh, don't talk about such
+things, sir! if it's only to keep me lingering on for another hour, sir.
+Mr Frank, I used to grumble sometimes in Wimpole Street about my
+pantry being dark and made mizzable by the iron bars and the old,
+yellowish, wobbly glass; but it seems a sort of place now as I'd give
+anything to get back to--parrydicey, and that sort of thing.  Rest--
+breakfast!  There can't be either of them out here, only sand.  Oh, sir,
+you're a-laughing.  I know what you're going to say.  You're going to
+make jokes about the breakfast, and say we're to have the sand which is
+there."
+
+"Wrong, Sam," replied Frank laughing; "but I'm glad to see that you can
+think about jokes.  There, sit up, man, and look yonder straight ahead.
+The tents are in sight."
+
+"Tents?  Where?" cried the man, changing his tone.  "I can't see 'em."
+
+"They are not very plain yet, but there they are."
+
+"White uns, sir, with flags flying, and that sort of thing?  What are
+they--marquees, or bell-tents like the soldiers have?"
+
+"I don't suppose they are either, but native tents," said Frank, shading
+his eyes again.  "They look very low and small, right away on the
+horizon, and they seem to be brown."
+
+"On the horizon, sir?  Why, that means out at sea, and we sha'n't be
+there before night."
+
+"Well, right away on the horizon of this sea of sand," said Frank
+cheerfully; "but I don't think we are above a mile or two away."
+
+"Oh!" groaned Sam.  "Say two miles, then, and chuck in another because
+places are always farther away than you think.  Three miles, and we're
+going a mile an hour.  Mr Frank, sir, have you got a pencil and a bit
+o' paper?"
+
+"Yes, in my pocket-book.  Will you have them now?"
+
+"Me, sir," said the man faintly.  "I couldn't write, sir; I want you to
+do it for me."
+
+"A letter?  Well, when we get to the tents."
+
+"No, sir, now.  I sha'n't live to see no tents.  There ain't much, sir;
+only a silver watch and chain, a bit in the Post Office Savings Bank,
+and my clothes, as my brother 'll be very glad to have."
+
+"Oh, I see! you want to make your will, Sam," said Frank seriously.
+
+"That's it, sir; and you'd better write it as plain as you can, sir, so
+as there sha'n't be no mistakes after, and I dessay I can manage to make
+my cross."
+
+"A will made on a camel in the desert, Sam!" said Frank seriously.
+"Rather a novelty in wills, eh?  Better wait till after breakfast."
+
+"Breakfast, sir?"
+
+"The Sheikh says there'll be coffee."
+
+"Coffee out here, sir?"
+
+"Yes, and these people know what good coffee is."
+
+"Yes, sir; it was very good at the hotel.  'Most as good as ours at
+home."
+
+"And he said that he sent two camel-loads of necessaries on before us
+yesterday."
+
+"He did, sir?" said Sam, whose voice sounded stronger.
+
+"Yes, and look now: the tents are getting quite plain.  They look
+peculiar, and there are camels about them, and there are green trees--
+palms, I think.  There must be a water-hole there, I suppose."
+
+"Yes, I can see the trees, sir--toy-shop sort o' trees."
+
+"Here's a man coming to meet us on a camel too--a man all in white."
+
+There was a pause for a few minutes, during which period the camels
+stepped out more freely, as they blinked and looked from under their
+eyelids in a supercilious way, drooping their lips and sniffing as if
+they smelt water.
+
+"Think there's likely to be a pen and ink yonder, sir?"
+
+"There is with the doctor's medicine chest, I know."
+
+"These camels do move about in a dreadful, wobbly way, sir, don't they?"
+
+"Yes; but I'm growing more accustomed to the motion already."
+
+"That's because you're young, sir, and not set like I am.  But I was
+thinking that it would be rather hard to write plain, going as we are."
+
+"Very, Sam."
+
+"And there are so many troubles about wills when the lawyers get hold of
+'em, and often just about a word or two."
+
+"Quite true, Sam," said Frank seriously.
+
+"You see, there's a nice bit of money I've saved up, sir--over fifty
+pound--and I shouldn't rest easy if it all went in law through the will
+being made hasty like.  P'r'aps it would be better if we stopped till we
+got to the tents.  What do you say, sir?  Might be a table there for you
+to write on."
+
+"Well, I feel very doubtful about the table, Sam; but I can't help
+thinking that I could write a good deal more clearly lying on the sand
+with the paper on a box or a biscuit-tin."
+
+"Yes, sir, I feel sure it would be better to wait now, and I'll risk
+it."
+
+"Risk what--the writing?"
+
+"No, sir; holding out till we get to the tents.  Seems as if we shall
+get there a bit sooner than I thought for."
+
+"Oh, yes! we shall be there in less than half an hour."
+
+"Soon as that, sir?"
+
+"Yes."
+
+"Think I can hold out till then?"
+
+"If you try very hard, Sam," said Frank seriously.  "You seem terribly
+knocked up; but I feel in hope that a good breakfast and a few hours'
+sleep will do you a lot of good, and then if the doctor takes you in
+hand, you will feel a different man by to-morrow."
+
+"To-morrow, sir?  Think I shall ever see to-morrow?"
+
+"I hope so.  Ah, here's the man from the tents!  What a good-looking
+young Arab he seems, and what a clean-limbed, swift camel he is on--a
+beauty!"
+
+"Ugh!  Don't say that, sir.  They seem to me the most unnatural-looking,
+big, birdy creatures I ever set eyes on; and oh, Mr Frank! do you think
+it's possible for a man to get to ride them and like it?"
+
+"Look at that fellow," said Frank; "he seems as if he were part of the
+beast he rides."
+
+"P'r'aps he is, sir; being a native."
+
+"Oh, come, Sam, you're getting better," cried Frank cheerily.  "Look,
+there's a fire outside that tent--two fires.  That means cooking, and
+cooking means breakfast.  I feel as if I shall be ready for some after
+all.  Look at the place here."
+
+Sam began to grow interested, for they were approaching an oasis of some
+two or three hundred acres in extent, where, consequent upon the welling
+up of a spring of water at the foot of a clump of rocks, a few dom and
+date palms rose up gracefully, and the ground was covered pretty
+liberally with closely nibbled-off herbage, and dotted with sheep and
+goats, a few camels lying about here and there close to the group of
+booth-like tents, while for three or four hundred yards the course of
+the flowing water which rose from the spring could be clearly traced, by
+the richness of the plants and shrubs which owed their existence to its
+presence.
+
+The clump of tents proved to be more extensive than they had seemed to
+be at a distance, and the Sheikh's little patriarchal family greater
+than the travellers had anticipated.  Children could be seen staring
+curiously at the newcomers; dark-eyed women stole from tent to tent, and
+quite twenty tall, dark, well-featured men came forward to bid them
+welcome and relieve the laden camels of their loads; while when the
+Sheikh led the way to the largest tent, into whose shadowy gloom the
+party entered with a feeling of relief, it was to find ample traces of
+the fact at which the old man had hinted in conversation, that he was
+comparatively wealthy.  For the tent boasted divans; handsome carpets
+were spread over the sand, and upon one there was that European luxury,
+a white linen cloth, upon which was already prepared, simple and good,
+all that was necessary for the welcome breakfast, while in a little side
+tent, greatest luxury of all, there were brass basins, towels, and great
+earthen vessels full of clear, cool water.
+
+"Hah, Sheikh," said the doctor, with a sigh of relief, "this is grand!
+I'm coming to life again."
+
+"I am glad the learned Hakim is satisfied with his servant's
+preparations," said the Sheikh humbly.  "There will be breakfast in a
+very short time.  It was hastened by the women as soon as the camels
+came in sight."
+
+"But of course we cannot travel with tents like this," said the doctor.
+
+"Oh, no, Excellency," replied the Sheikh; "only two that will be
+smaller; but everything necessary for their Excellencies' comfort will
+be done.  It will be right, and impress the Baggara and others of the
+Mahdi's followers.  For the Hakim is not a poor dervish who tries to
+cure; he is a great Frankish doctor who travels to do good.  He does not
+treat the sick and wounded to be paid in piastres, or to receive gifts,
+but because he loves to cure the suffering."
+
+"Quite right," said the doctor gravely.
+
+"Then it is right and fit that he should travel with good tents and
+camels, and such things as suit his dignity."
+
+"But this will be travelling like an eastern prince," said the doctor,
+who was beaming with satisfaction, after a refreshing sluice in some
+cool water.
+
+"A learned Hakim such as his Excellency Landon assures me that you are,
+is greater than any eastern prince," said the Sheikh, handing a fresh
+bath-towel; "and I have a petition to make to his Excellency."
+
+"A petition?  What is it, Ibrahim?"
+
+"I have a son here, Excellency; he is my youngest, and the light of my
+old eyes, but he is weak and sickly, and there are times when I feel
+that I am fighting against fate, and that it would be better that I
+should let him die in peace.  But I love him, and I would have him live.
+Will the Hakim see the boy and say whether he is to live or die?"
+
+"Yes.  What is his ailment?"
+
+"It was through a fall from a camel.  A fierce old bull rushed at the
+young one he rode, and fell upon him and crushed him."
+
+"Ah, I see," said the doctor.  "That is in my way."
+
+"Then the learned Hakim will see the boy?"
+
+"Yes, at once.  Where is he?"
+
+"No, no, not at once," said the Sheikh.  "Poor Hassan has waited three
+years; he can wait another hour till the Hakim has eaten and rested.
+Then his Excellency will be refreshed, his eyes will see more clearly,
+and may be then he will be able to make an old man's heart rejoice.  If
+it is not to be--well, His will be done."
+
+"Yes," said the doctor gravely, as he laid his hand upon the Sheikh's
+arm.
+
+"And there are other sufferers here, Excellency, who would pray to you
+for help, for we are not free from the ills which afflict mankind.  A
+mother would ask you if her little one will live.  There is a little
+girl whose sight is nearly gone, and one of my young men whose broken
+leg does not grow together again.  Shall we be asking too much of the
+Hakim if we say, look at these sufferers and give them words of comfort
+if you can give them nothing more, not even hope?"
+
+"I am a learned Hakim, you say, Sheikh, and I have come out here to use
+my knowledge without fee or reward.  Heaven helping me, I hope to do
+much good, and I place myself in your hands.  You will lead us where you
+think best, and you will bring the people whom I ought to see.  That is
+enough."
+
+"Yes, Excellency, and as soon as your friends are ready the breakfast
+waits."
+
+
+
+CHAPTER TEN.
+
+AN OPERATION.
+
+The meal prepared by the Sheikh's people astounded the little party--
+there were crisp cutlets, freshly made cakes, bowls of a porridge made
+with fresh milk and some kind of finely ground grain, and fruit in
+abundance, while all pronounced the freshly roasted coffee to be
+delicious.  So appetising did it prove in the pleasant, subdued shadow
+of the tent, that the weariness of the past night was forgotten by more
+than one, for before the meal was at an end Sam made his appearance,
+washed and refreshed, to help attend to his master's wants, and say in
+answer to Frank's inquiries that he couldn't have believed he could feel
+so much better in so short a time.
+
+Frank smiled to himself, but he did not allude to the will.  It was soon
+evident, though, that the man had his words upon his conscience, for he
+kept on giving Frank peculiar, meaning looks, one and all of which were
+ignored, the only words that passed being later in the afternoon, when
+Sam suddenly edged up close to his confidant and said--
+
+"It's wonderful what a good rest does for a man, Mr Frank, sir, isn't
+it?"
+
+"Wonderful, Sam," was the reply.  "I feel very little the worse for my
+night's ride."
+
+"That's just about like I am, sir, and--"
+
+"I can't stop Sam," said Frank, interrupting him; "your master wants me
+again."
+
+Frank hurried back to the doctor's side to resume his position of
+assistant, for he had been pretty busy making his first essays at the
+task which was to be his for many months to come.
+
+For the Sheikh's son had been seen, examined, and an operation
+performed, one of a very simple nature, but sufficient to give instant
+relief; while the Hakim's instructions that the lad was to remain lying
+down for a month were not hard for one who had not stood up, save in
+acute agony, for three years.
+
+"I am well paid for this operation, Frank, my lad," said the Hakim, when
+he left the lad's tent; for the old Sheikh had gone down on one knee to
+touch the hand extended to him.
+
+"It is a miracle, Excellency," he said; "but tell me that he will live."
+
+"It is no miracle, Sheikh," replied the doctor, "only the result of
+study and practice.  Oh, yes, the boy will live and grow strong.  Don't
+kneel to me; I am but a man like yourself, and glad to help one who has
+come forward so nobly to help us."
+
+The visit to the sick child was not of so happy a nature, for the Hakim
+took the mother's hand sadly, and the Sheikh interpreted his words, that
+told how hopeless was the case, and how much better for her that she
+should cease to suffer soon.
+
+In another tent, though, the Hakim brought light and hope, for the
+failing sight, though it would soon have become hopeless, was at a stage
+when a slight operation and the following treatment of keeping the girl
+in darkness, were sufficient to ensure recovery.
+
+The next patient was the young Arab suffering from the broken limb, and
+over this the Hakim's examination, after the poor fellow had limped by
+the help of a stick to a rough couch in one of the smaller tents, was
+long and careful.
+
+"The youth is healthy and strong," the doctor said to the Sheikh and the
+young man's brother, "but the leg will never mend while it is like this.
+There is diseased bone."
+
+"Then the Hakim cannot cure him?" said the Sheikh sadly, and the
+sufferer lay watching anxiously, gazing from one to the other, longing
+intensely to know the meaning of the words spoken in what was, in spite
+of the people of his tribe being so much in touch with the English who
+came to Cairo, an unknown tongue.
+
+"Oh, yes, I can certainly cure him if he is willing to bear some pain,
+which I will alleviate all I can, and will undertake to wait patiently
+afterwards until the broken bones have knit together."
+
+"Ah, then," cried the Sheikh, "cure him.  He must bear the pain."
+
+"Ask his consent first," said the doctor.
+
+"His?" said the Sheikh, looking wonderingly at the doctor; "he is one of
+my people.  I give you my permission."
+
+"Never mind that.  Ask him if he is willing.  Who is this?"
+
+"His brother, Excellency."
+
+"Ask him too."
+
+The words were interpreted, and the anxious look on the brothers' faces
+gave place to one of eager hope and pleasure as they heard and replied--
+
+"Yes, Excellency, we beg that you will do what is right, no matter what
+pain he suffers.  He prays you to make him a man instead of the useless
+cripple he remains--useless to himself, a trouble to his friends."
+
+The Hakim bowed and turned to Frank.
+
+"You will have to help me," he said.  "I will not ask you if you have
+the nerve.  There is diseased bone, which must be removed, and he must
+be kept under an anaesthetic, for he could not bear the pain, and his
+sufferings would hinder me."
+
+Half an hour later, by the Sheikh's orders, everyone was sent to a
+distance from the tent, into which the Hakim was watched with looks full
+of awe, as he disappeared therein, followed by Frank and the Sheikh, the
+brother sitting by waiting, and both looking reverently at the man whose
+knowledge was something tremendous in their eyes.
+
+"Are you going to stay, Sheikh?" said the Hakim.  "It would be better
+that you and this young man should go."
+
+"I should like his brother to stay and see what is done, Excellency,
+while I--I am the father and chief of my tribe; the people look to me,
+and it is through me that you are going to do this thing.  My people
+would not be contented if I did not stay."
+
+"Very well," said the doctor quietly, and for the next half hour he was
+busily employed, finishing the securing of the last bandage within that
+time, while when the patient had fully recovered his consciousness, the
+calm look of content and satisfaction with which he smiled up in his
+surgeon's face on being told that all was done, augured well for a quick
+recovery.
+
+The Hakim's reputation had been planted that day like so much seed
+thrown into fertile soil; and as they left the tent after the last
+patient had sunk into a calm sleep, Frank, who had seen the brother
+steal out before, now noticed how the people of the tribe were standing
+about waiting to see the Hakim return to his own tent, one and all eager
+to catch his eye and make obeisance after their fashion to this man, who
+seemed greater to them than any chief.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER ELEVEN.
+
+THE NOMAD LIFE.
+
+It was settled that a stay of three days was to be made at the
+encampment, a period that seemed grievously long to Frank; but there
+were excellent reasons for the delay.
+
+The Sheikh said it would take that time to make all the preparations
+necessary for the start; and he advocated the wisdom of the three who
+were not accustomed to camel-riding, going out twice each day with some
+of the young men, so as to grow more at ease.
+
+On the other hand, the Hakim said that it would be absolutely necessary
+for him to stay that time with his patients, so as to ensure good
+following his operations, and this was unanswerable.
+
+"We shall not be losing time, Excellencies," said the Sheikh, "for you
+must now take at once to the native dress, and assume the characters of
+those you are to represent."
+
+"But your people here," said Frank quickly; "is it wise for them to
+know?"
+
+The Sheikh smiled.
+
+"Oh, yes," he said; "why not?  They must know.  It is to ensure the
+safety of you all from the wild and savage followers of the Mahdi, I
+have told them, and they feel that it is good.  No harm can come from
+their knowing all this."
+
+"Forgive me," said Frank quickly.  "I feel now that my suspicions were
+unworthy."
+
+"Only natural, Frank," said the professor quietly.  "You do not know
+Ibrahim and his people as I do."
+
+"That is my misfortune," said the young man, smiling.  "I am going to
+know them as well."
+
+That evening Sam came to the Hakim's tent to ask if he could do anything
+for his master.
+
+He found him sitting at the tent door talking with Frank and the
+professor, and the three exchanged glances.
+
+"Well, no, Samuel," said the Hakim quietly.  "You are tired out with
+your long ride."
+
+"Yes, sir; I ache all over, and my hands are quite shaky."
+
+"I shall want nothing more.  Go and rest yourself, and go to your bed in
+good time, so as to get a long night's rest."
+
+"Thankye, sir; I'm much obliged, sir.  I think that is about what I want
+to set me right."
+
+Sam went back to the little tent set apart for him, and lost no time in
+throwing himself down upon a rug, to lie listening to the bleating of
+the sheep and goats, mingled with which came at times the moaning and
+complaining of the camels.
+
+As soon as his back was turned the doctor had laughed softly.
+
+"I meant to have set him to work to-night," he said, "over my head; but
+I don't think his touch would have been very light after his last
+night's work."
+
+"Oh, no," said the professor; "besides, you ought to have daylight for
+that job.  Between ourselves, I shall not be sorry to take to the native
+dress again.  It is much more suitable for the climate than ours.  I
+have used it in a modified form ever since I first came out.  The sooner
+we begin the better."
+
+The conversation then turned upon the doctor's patients.
+
+"So you found them patient patients," said the professor, smiling.
+
+"Poor creatures, yes.  They seem to have the most unbounded faith in
+me."
+
+"Of course," said the professor; "and a fine thing for them that they
+have, Robert my son."
+
+"Yes, Fred, old fellow, I suppose it is, for it means quick recovery.  I
+always like to have to do with a patient who looks relieved as soon as I
+come into the room.  He little knows how he is helping me towards his
+cure."
+
+"Poor fellow! he doesn't think, then, of what is to come?"
+
+"His sufferings?" said the doctor.  "No, only about how I may be able to
+relieve them."
+
+"Didn't mean that, old fellow," said the professor.  "I meant his mental
+sufferings over the fees; eh, Frank?"
+
+"Don't try to joke, Fred," said the doctor; "this place makes me feel
+solemn--the gentle calm of the oasis, the trickling of the water in this
+thirsty land, and the simple, patriarchal life of the people."
+
+"Ha, ha!" laughed the professor softly; "hear this Frank?"
+
+"Hear what?" said the young man, in a tone or voice which suggested that
+the calm of the desert was influencing him too.
+
+"Bob Morris talking as if it wouldn't take much to make him give up
+civilisation and take to a nomad life."
+
+"Well," said the doctor quietly, "I confess that already I feel
+something of its fascination, and I am glad we have come.  All this is
+growing irresistibly attractive."
+
+"And when I've been at home and have vaunted the beauty of the old,
+simple, patriarchal life, and told of how I enjoyed it during my
+Egyptian explorations, you laughed at me, and as good as called me a
+lunatic.  What do you say to that?"
+
+"That I spoke in ignorance, old fellow," said the doctor quietly.  "Of
+course I should not like to give up our civilisation, but for a time
+this has a great charm.  I feel, too, that we have done very wisely in
+following out Frank's plan."
+
+"Thank you," said the young man eagerly.
+
+"I shall get on famously with these simple people, who will all prove
+excellent patients, and the result will be that we shall get in touch
+with poor old Harry, and bring him safely away."
+
+"Yes, we're going to do it, Frank, my lad.  It looks easier to me every
+hour."
+
+No more was said for a time, for they all felt the fatigue consequent
+upon their exertions of the past night, and that it was very delicious
+to lounge there in the soft sand, watching the fall of evening with the
+paling glories of the most wonderful sunset two of the party had ever
+beheld.  And this was made the more agreeable by the respect with which
+they were treated, their part of the encampment being kept, as it were,
+sacred, and everything sordid hidden from their sight.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER TWELVE.
+
+A FIGHT WITH A BLACK.
+
+Now it so happened that Sam soon ceased to congratulate himself upon his
+good luck.  He had thrown himself upon the couch provided for his
+resting-place.  He had discovered by turning it up that sheep-skins were
+stretched beneath it to make it soft, and that beneath these the sand
+was yielding and dry.  But all the same the couch felt hard, and sleep
+would not come.
+
+He tried this side and that side, front after back, and returned to the
+back; but it was no good, for the fact was that he was over-tired; and
+over-weariness, that is to say, exhaustion, is one of the worst
+opponents to a calm and satisfying sleep.
+
+The evening came on cool and soft after the ardour of the afternoon, and
+he began thinking about the proceedings of that time, and felt a little
+hurt that the doctor had not called upon him to come and act as his
+assistant, and these thoughts lasted him for about an hour, but did not
+weary him into dropping off to sleep.  They seemed to have the contrary
+effect, making him irritable; and though he made up his mind to watch
+the stars peer out through the opalescent sky--he did not call it
+opalescent, for the simple word dusky took its place--even their soft
+light had no effect upon him, and to come to the result at once the
+would-be sleeper gave it up at last for a bad job.
+
+"I'll go and get something to eat and drink, and then try what I can
+do."
+
+In this spirit he rose from his couch, feeling stiff and awkward,
+grunted, stretched, and then stood in the tent door looking out upon the
+glorious, star-spangled sky, noting that it was lighter towards the
+east, where the moon was about to rise.
+
+"Ought to be able to sleep," he said.  "Nice fine night, and it's all
+quiet and cool."
+
+Then his attention was taken up by the soft light which came from the
+gentlemen's tent, in which a lamp was burning, while some twenty yards
+away another was lighting up the opening of the Sheikh's big tent,
+showing the figures of the chief and his visitors seated comfortably
+smoking, as they conversed in a low voice.
+
+Sam made up his mind at once.  There would be drinking water in a brass
+vessel in the gentlemen's tent, and perhaps something to eat--something
+to refresh him and give him the night's rest of which he was so sorely
+in need.
+
+Walking across the open space, he turned his head for a moment,
+attracted by a complaining voice as of some one in trouble, and he was
+about to run off to find out what was the matter.  But a repetition of
+the sound made him jerk himself angrily away.
+
+"One of those beauties!" he muttered.  "Talk about a bad-tempered horse,
+why he's an angel compared to a camel!  Of all the disagreeable,
+whining, sour, vicious things that ever breathed, they seem about the
+worst.  Gritty, that's what they are.  Get the sand into their tempers
+when they're young, I suppose.--Oh, he's quiet now.  Well, it is a
+beautiful night after all, and the cool air seems to do one good.  I
+expect I shall get to like it when I've learnt to ride that brute of a
+camel, so long as there's no stabbing and spearing and that sort of
+thing."
+
+Sam shook his head very solemnly as these last thoughts came into his
+head in company with recollections of scraps he had read in the daily
+papers about encounters with the dervishes, and the horrible massacres
+they had perpetrated.
+
+"Seems to me," he said, "that these people ought to be stopped.  If I
+was Government I wouldn't let people go about carrying swords and
+spears.  With things like them fashionable it stands to reason that
+they're sure to want to stick them into somebody.--Ugh!  It's very
+horrid.  There ought never to be any other fighting than what is done
+with a fist."
+
+Sam had by this time sauntered up to the opening into the gentlemen's
+tent, and there he paused to look round at the figures by that of the
+Sheikh, before stepping inside in search of what he required.
+
+The low murmur of conversation came softly to his ears as he looked and
+then turned back to enter.
+
+"Shouldn't a bit wonder if they've got a nice hot cup of coffee there,
+and that's just the thing that would suit my complaint exactly.  I
+should be all right if I was at home, but I sha'n't get it here, and--"
+
+By this time he was half across the roomy, booth-like tent, where he
+stopped short as if turned to stone in his surprise.  For dimly seen by
+the light from the hanging lamp, he could see a figure stooping down--
+through the opening into the inner tent where the water and brass basins
+stood ready for washing.
+
+It was within this place that the leather cases containing the
+travellers' clothes and various necessaries had been placed, and over
+one of these open portmanteaus the dimly seen figure was bending, and
+from the slight noises he made it was evident that he was ransacking the
+case in search of something.
+
+"Oh," thought Sam excitedly, "that's why I couldn't sleep--sort o'
+warning like to do my dooty.  Thieves, eh? and not a policeman on the
+beat!"
+
+Just at that moment the figure straightened itself up, and quick as
+thought Sam stepped close back to the entrance and behind a hanging rug,
+which hid him from the figure but enabled him to watch its proceedings.
+
+Sam's first idea was to shout for help to capture the thief, but he
+checked himself.
+
+"Wouldn't do," he thought.  "This sort's too slippery.  He'd be off over
+the sands and gone before anyone came.  I've got to catch my gentleman
+myself.  Wonder whether he has a knife."
+
+Sam's heart beat fast, but it was with excitement, for there was no
+leaven of fear.  A marauder was robbing his master or one of his
+master's friends, and he felt it to be his duty to capture the
+scoundrel.  At the same time he intended to do this without injury to
+himself.
+
+"Bless him!" he muttered; "if he'll only come close and turn his back
+I'll have him down on his face in a jiffy, and sit upon him as if he was
+a camel.  It will be time enough to holloa then."
+
+Those were exciting moments, and Sam's heart beat faster still as the
+man stepped softly out of the inner tent and stood for a few moments
+where the dim light of the lamp fell upon him, showing him to be a
+light, active-looking black in white cotton jacket and short drawers,
+his arms, breast, and legs from mid-thigh being bare, and glistening
+softly as he moved, while his eyes rolled and the whites stood out
+clearly against the dark skin.
+
+"He'll be hard to hold," thought Sam, "and I mustn't trust to that thin
+cotton stuff.  He'll tear away in a moment.  But he hasn't a knife, as
+far as I can see.  What's he got in his pockets, I wonder."
+
+Sam wondered more the next moment, as he saw the black dart softly back
+into the inner tent and disappear, his bare feet not making a sound.
+
+"Is there a way out behind there?" the man asked himself, for all was
+quiet and the minutes glided by till he was just on the point of
+stepping forward to make sure of the enemy's presence, when the black
+appeared again, carrying an armful of clothes, which he threw down on
+the carpet, and to Sam's great delight dropped upon his knees in the
+very position he would have placed him, while the object of his visit
+was plainly shown, for he began to rummage the pockets of the garments
+and transfer their contents, the chink of money being heard, and a faint
+gleam was apparently given forth by something metallic, evidently a
+watch.
+
+As Sam saw all this he softly raised his hands to his lips after the
+fashion of a boy about to moisten them so as to get a good grip.  But it
+was only in form, and as he did so he stepped softly from behind the
+hanging rug and then onward slowly to within springing distance, when
+with extended hands he crouched and sprang at the black, landed upon his
+back, driving him forward, and gripped him tightly.
+
+"Got you!" he muttered to himself, and this was perfectly true, but the
+black did not lie quiet like the camel Sam had settled himself to ride.
+For he began to act at once as if made of a combination of steel
+springs.  He swung himself sidewise as he felt Sam upon his back,
+disorganised the butler's holding, and behaved in a thoroughly eel-like
+fashion as he struggled hard to get away.
+
+It was many years since Sam had engaged in such a struggle, but he had
+not quite forgotten old, boyish encounters.  The resistance stirred up
+the latent temper within him, and though his holding was not what he had
+meant it to be, it was fast, and he made it tighter, locking arms and
+legs about his captive, and the next minute they were rolling over and
+over, twisting and twining on the carpet, and panting hard as each
+strove for the mastery.
+
+Sam's intention had been to shout for help as soon as he had seized the
+black, but he was too busy holding him, and all recollection of his
+plans passed from his memory at once.  All he could think of now was
+that he must keep his prize, while it was perfectly evident that his
+prize did not mean to be kept, but fought for his liberty with might and
+main, while at the first encounter the writhing pair had come in contact
+with one of the poles which supported the tent, the lamp had fallen, and
+the place now, save for the dim starlight seen through the doorway, was
+in utter darkness.
+
+It was only working by touch, but Sam made good use of his muscles,
+forgetting all about his stiffness, and for quite a couple of minutes
+the panting and scuffling of the wrestling pair went on, till Sam found
+himself upon his back with the black sitting upon his chest and a pair
+of hands in close proximity to his throat.
+
+But in spite of his being in the worse position Sam was not beaten.  He
+had fast hold of his enemy with his hands, and had thrown up his legs so
+as to tighten them round those of his foe, and in this position both
+held on as if trying to recover breath.
+
+Then all at once Sam felt the grip of one of the black's hands loosen,
+and a horrible thought flashed through his brain--
+
+It was his adversary's right hand, and he was about to seek for his
+knife!
+
+"Look here, you black hound," panted Sam.  "If you stab me you'll be
+hung."
+
+"Sam!" came in a hoarse voice, and the grip slackened.
+
+"Who are you?" panted Sam.  "Why!--what I--'Tain't you, is it, Master
+Frank?"
+
+"Oh, you idiot! you fool!"
+
+"But I don't under--I say, Mr Frank, I took you for a nigger."
+
+"You've dragged me all to pieces, and I'm so hot I--"
+
+"But is it you, Master Frank, dressed up?"
+
+"You knew it was," cried the young man angrily, as the grasp being
+slackened he struggled up, to stand breathing hard.
+
+"'Strue as goodness, sir, I didn't!" said Sam, rising to his knees.
+"Oh, just wait till I get my wind again.  I say, Mr Frank, you are
+strong--strong as--as a donkey."
+
+"I?  Come, I like that!" panted Frank.  "I'm a donkey, am I, sir?"
+
+"'Pon my word, Mr Frank, I beg your pardon.  I came into the tent and
+saw, as I thought, a real nigger robbing the place, and though I felt
+scared about his having a knife, I went at him, and it was you all the
+time."
+
+"Yes, it was I all the time," cried Frank angrily.  "Why didn't you
+speak?"
+
+"Never thought about it, sir.  Seemed to me that I ought to catch the
+thief, and I caught a Tartar instead."
+
+"It is most vexatious!  Oh, how hot I am!  Have you got a match?"
+
+"Yes, I've got a box somewhere."
+
+"Look sharp, then, and light the lamp."
+
+"All right, sir," said Sam, fumbling in his box, and proceeding to
+strike a light.  "I 'spose you've made me in a pretty mess, sir."
+
+"What!  Have I made your nose bleed?"
+
+"Oh, no, sir.  I meant the lampblack.  I suppose I shall be covered with
+it."
+
+"Wait till you get the light, and see," said Frank sharply.
+
+_Scratch_!  The little wax match flashed, the lamp was picked up
+uninjured, and after a little trying, burned freely, so that the
+adversaries could gaze in each other's faces.
+
+But prior to doing this Sam examined his hands twice over, and then
+passed them over his face.  He next took out a pocket-handkerchief and
+rubbed his face well, bringing away plenty of perspiration, but the
+linen remained white.
+
+"It hasn't come off, sir," he said, in a tone full of wonder; and then,
+moistening his handkerchief with his lips, "Beg your pardon, sir, would
+you mind?"
+
+Frank, whose annoyance was dying out, being driven off by a feeling of
+amusement caused by the man's looks of wonder, stood fast while Sam
+passed his handkerchief over the back of one hand and then drew back,
+laughing softly.
+
+"Well, Sam!" he cried.
+
+"I say, sir, you do look rum!  I shouldn't have known you.  I don't know
+you now, and I don't believe your own mother would."
+
+"Then you think the disguise is perfect enough?"
+
+"Disguise, sir?  You can't call that a disguise!  It's the real thing.
+Why, you're a downright genuine nigger, that you are!"
+
+"That's right, Sam," said Frank, smiling now.
+
+"And the best of it is, sir, that you're regular fast colours."
+
+"I hope so, Sam."
+
+"Think you could bear to wash yourself, sir?"
+
+"Oh, yes.  It will take weeks to make this look lighter."
+
+"Well, I call it amazing, sir.  There ain't no need for you to mind
+where you go.  No dervish could take you for a white man, unless he was
+mad.  But am I to be painted that colour?"
+
+"No; you will go as you are--the Hakim's white servant."
+
+"Well, just as you like, sir; I don't mind.  I'll be touched up like you
+are if you think it will be safer for a man.  It's wonderful, sir.  And
+no fear of its showing the dirt.  But pst! here's some one coming.  The
+doctor and Mr Landon, sir.  I thought you were sitting along with them.
+Have they seen you like this?"
+
+"No, Sam; I was just getting ready for them."
+
+"Did they know it, sir?"
+
+"No."
+
+"Then I'll go in yonder.  You stop and let 'em catch you sudden like.
+Just to try if they'll know you."
+
+Frank nodded, and Sam darted into the inner tent, just having
+disappeared as the professor sauntered in with the doctor, and both drew
+up short.
+
+"Hullo, you, sir!" said the professor gruffly, in Arabic; "what business
+have you here?"
+
+Frank made no reply, but edged a little to one side, while at the same
+moment the doctor caught sight of the clothes lying on the floor, and
+uttered an exclamation.
+
+"Yes, see!" cried the professor.  "Robbers, eh?  Help me, and we'll tie
+this fellow up."
+
+"Quick, then," said the doctor.  "Look out for his knife.  Bah! how
+absurd!" he added the next moment, calming down from the excitability he
+had displayed.
+
+"What do you mean?" cried the professor sharply.
+
+"Don't hold back.  Why!--what!--My dear Frank, what a metamorphosis!"
+
+"Yes," said Frank quietly.  "I have passed muster with three of you, so
+I suppose it will do."
+
+"Do!" cried the professor.  "Why, it is simply admirable.  Stop a
+minute, I'll fetch Sam from his tent and try him.--Eh?  You here, sir?"
+he added, as Sam came out of the inner tent.--"You've seen him, then?"
+
+"Yes, sir, and felt him too!" said the man, and the newcomers heard what
+had taken place.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER THIRTEEN.
+
+BEN EDDIN.
+
+The Hakim was carefully prepared the next morning for his visit to his
+patients, Sam making the preparations, even to the extent of having a
+brass pot of boiling water for the razors.
+
+"Seems a pity, sir," he said, as the three gentlemen sat together in the
+tent, a turned-up case forming the barber's chair, upon which the doctor
+took his seat; "master's got such a fine, thick head of hair."
+
+"Operate, Sam, operate," said the doctor; and the next minute, comb in
+one hand, scissors in the other, the man was snipping away, and the
+doctor's crisp, dark hair fell rapidly over his shoulders and down about
+him upon the cloth that had been spread.
+
+Sam's cutting was clever enough, and a pretty good transformation was
+produced even with the scissors, while, when the razor had done its
+part, and the finishing touches had been given, the doctor passed his
+hands over his head and then drew them over his long beard.
+
+"Like a looking-glass?" said the professor drily.
+
+"No, thanks.  I know my features pretty well," was the reply.  "I shall
+not forget them."
+
+"But don't you want to see the Hakim?"
+
+"No," said the doctor quietly.  "How many years older do I look, Frank?"
+he added quickly.
+
+"Twenty," was the prompt reply.
+
+"Quite," said the professor.
+
+"The clothes the Sheikh sent in, Sam," said the doctor, after giving a
+nod of satisfaction.  "Now then, let me finish the work, so that you may
+see whether it will pass muster."
+
+"I'll keep you company," said the professor, and he followed his friend
+into the further tent, leaving Frank walking thoughtfully up and down,
+passing and repassing the doorway, till his attention was caught by the
+tall, stately figure of the Sheikh who was coming across from his own
+place.
+
+Frank hesitated a moment or two, and then he drew himself up and stood
+waiting with folded arms till the Sheikh reached the entrance, and said
+quietly--
+
+"May I enter, O Excellency?"
+
+"Yes, come in," cried the doctor from the inner tent, and the old Arab
+bent a little as he came in, and then raised himself erect as he took a
+step or two into the half light of the shady place, and stopped short
+face to face with Frank, at whom for the first few moments he stood
+staring without the slightest sign of recognition in his countenance,
+while the youth resembled an ebony carving more than a living being.
+
+"Hah!" said the Sheikh at last.  "It is very good, Excellency, very
+good.  It would deceive me.  I should not have known.  But the dark
+stain?  Will it come off?"
+
+Frank shook his head.
+
+"Not if you used water?"
+
+There was another shake of the head.
+
+"It is good--more than good," said the Sheikh.  "I have come over to
+walk with the Hakim to see his sick people.  Is he ready to go?"
+
+Frank shook his head, and raising a hand slowly pointed to his mouth.
+
+"Ah, I forgot that," said the old man, smiling gravely.  "It is very
+good indeed; but can you keep this painful silence?"
+
+Frank bowed his head slowly, and pointed to the divan for the Sheikh to
+take his seat, the young man preserving his erect position of respect
+the while.
+
+"It is soon to begin, Excellency," said the Sheikh smiling, "but you
+must be Excellency no more till our work is done; only in my heart.
+What name will you bear?"
+
+"Frank!" cried the doctor from the inner tent, and the Sheikh smiled,
+but the young man shook his head violently.  "Tell the Sheikh I shall be
+with him in a minute."
+
+"I am waiting patiently, Excellency," said the old man aloud.  Then
+turning to Frank, "Suppose we say Ben Eddin?"
+
+Frank nodded and smiled.
+
+"Let it be so, then, Ben Eddin, my son, slave to the learned Hakim, with
+whom you have been so long that you understand his Frankish tongue.  I
+have lain awake thinking many hours about the Hakim's other slave, and I
+feel that it would be wise that he should be his Frankish slave.  There
+will be no mistake then.  He can wear our burnoose and haik; they will
+be enough.  It is quite right that he should have brought a servant from
+his own country.  What say you, Ben Eddin?"
+
+Frank bowed his head gravely at once, and the Sheikh smiled his
+satisfaction, before springing up quickly, and forgetting his grave
+manner he clapped his hands together, applauding, and then bowing low to
+the grave and reverend Hakim who entered the tent slowly in flowing
+white garments and voluminous turban, in front of which was fastened a
+large, dark green scarab, a genuine treasure found by the professor in
+the tomb of a man who was supposed to have been physician to one of the
+Egyptian kings.  It had been intended to form a brooch, and the doctor
+had had it set in gold.  This he had taken from among his curios as
+being most suitable for the purpose in hand, and it took the Sheikh's
+attention at once.
+
+"Well, Ibrahim," said the doctor, slowly removing his turban as if to
+place it more comfortably, but holding it long enough for the Arab to
+see his closely shaven head; "do you think this will do?"
+
+"It is perfect, Excellency," said the old man warmly.  "It far exceeds
+all I could have thought possible."
+
+"So say I," cried the professor, entering now in travel-stained Egyptian
+garments and muslin-covered fez.
+
+"Excellent, too, Excellency," said the Sheikh.  "And now you will keep
+to this?"
+
+"Of course.  The Hakim is ready now to go round and see his sick."
+
+The Sheikh bowed, and feeling a little nervous the party set off at
+once, leaving Sam watching them from the door.
+
+It was rather an ordeal, for they had not gone many paces towards the
+first tent they were to visit before they were seen, and word seemed to
+be passed quickly through the encampment, so that as they reached this
+first tent several of the Sheikh's people appeared, while when they came
+out of it again nearly everyone of those occupying the place had hurried
+forth to stand watching.
+
+But there was no look of wonder, no vestige of a smile, only respectful
+looks and bending down as the little party passed on.
+
+That first visit was a solemn one, for it was to the tent where they
+were met by the mother of the little child, who led them to where her
+little sufferer lay in its last sleep.  She reverently pressed the
+Hakim's extended hand to her forehead, her tear-filled eyes and
+trembling lips seeming to say that she accepted patiently the blow which
+had fallen during the night, and that the Great Physician was very wise.
+
+Frank Frere felt more at his ease by the time the next tent was reached,
+and perfectly satisfied when all was done.  For he had played his part
+of slave and assistant easily and well, holding water vessels, passing
+bandage and lint, and standing by the sufferers while the Hakim tended
+his patients with the greatest care.
+
+For there was no wondering gaze.  It seemed quite natural and right to
+the sufferers, who were all doing well.  The change in the dress of the
+Hakim and his friends was only what might have been expected now that
+their journey there was over, while Frank, the black slave, had the
+satisfaction of feeling that he was not even recognised by those he
+tended.  He was the Hakim's dumb, black slave.  The white assistant who
+had helped the doctor the previous day was not present--that was all.
+
+A couple of hours were taken up over the invalids, and they were left
+out of pain and comforted by the Hakim's gentle hand, while when their
+own tent was reached the Hakim was able to say that nothing could be
+better than the state of his patients.  With a couple more days'
+attention they might be left to nature, and would soon be well.
+
+That afternoon Sam set aside his English clothes and blossomed forth
+into a showy-looking Arab, evidently feeling rather proud of his dress,
+the most conspicuous part of which was a scarlet scarf broadly spread
+around his waist, one which in an ordinary way would have been pretty
+well hidden by the loose outer cotton robe, but which the man took ample
+care should not have its brilliant tint eclipsed more than he could
+help.
+
+Naturally enough he sought the first opportunity he could find of
+getting Frank alone in the tent, and began at once in rather a conscious
+way.
+
+"Beg pardon, sir," he said.  "I mean, Ben Eddin.  May I say Ben for
+short?"
+
+There was a short nod, and the man continued--
+
+"I say, sir--Ben.  It's very awkward, but the professor says I'm to
+treat you as if you're my fellow servant.  You won't like that?"
+
+There was a quick, eager nod.
+
+"Well, I sha'n't, Mr Ben.  I can't help it, but it makes me feel
+ashamed like, and as if I'd lost all respect for my master's young
+friend."
+
+Frank held out his hand with a smile, and kept it extended till, in a
+slow, hesitating way and with a peculiar grimace, Sam took it, and felt
+it held in a firm, manly, friendly grip.
+
+"Oh, well, Mr Ben, if it's to be like that I can't help it; but please
+recollect that however disrespectful I seem through this business my
+'eart's in its right place, and I think just the same of you as ever I
+did."
+
+There was a quick, eager nod and a smile, which made the man look more
+cheerful for a moment; but as he drew back his hand, he raised his white
+garment involuntarily and began to wipe the fingers, passing the white
+cotton over them two or three times before he realised what he was
+doing.
+
+"Oh," he exclaimed hastily, "what a hidiot I am!  I beg your pardon, Mr
+Ben, I do indeed.  It seemed to me as if your hand must have come off
+black.  Eh?--Never mind; that's what you look as if you was saying.--
+Thankye, sir.  That's very good of you.  Now you look as if you meant
+that I should soon get used to it.--Ah, you nod again.--Well, I'm
+blessed, sir, if I don't think it will begin to get easy after a bit of
+practice.--There's another of your nods.  Thankye, sir.  Yes, it will
+come right after all.  I never thought anyone could get through so much
+business with a few nods and shakes of the head.--Beg pardon, sir.--
+Hullo, that's a shake!  I'm doing wrong.  It takes a bit of time.--You
+nod.  So it does, sir--I mean Mr Ben.--What's that wrong?  Why, what
+have I said?--I know: it's the `mister.'  Thought so.--Ben, then, or Ben
+Eddin.  I shall get it soon.  Well, I don't want to be a nuisance, but
+it's very lonely for me, Ben, and if you wouldn't mind, as we are to be
+a bit together, I should like to come to you when I feel in a bit of a
+fix."
+
+Frank nodded and Sam's face lit-up with pleasure.
+
+"That's very nice of you, Ben Eddin," he said eagerly.  "You see, I
+wanted to have a word or two with you about these things.  I want to do
+it right and look proper."
+
+Frank nodded.
+
+"'Tain't vanity, mind, sir.  I ain't a bit conceited, but I should like
+to feel that I look decent."
+
+There was a decisive nod.
+
+"Thankye, Ben Eddin.  You see, they're so fresh to me.  The bit o'
+scarlet looks right, don't it?  Thankye Ben.  You don't think it a bit
+too sojery, do you?  No; you don't.  Well, I'm glad o' that, for I felt
+as it took off a bit of the washer-womany, night-gowny idea.  Then you
+think I shall do, Ben--Eddin?"
+
+Frank nodded approval.
+
+"Hah!  Makes a man feel a deal better.  For between ourselves, Ben
+Eddin, I got an idea in my head that everyone was a bit on the grin as
+soon as I came out, and if you could lay your 'and on your 'eart now and
+say to me with one of your straightforward looks without blinking your
+eyes that it was all my fancy I could go on as comfortable as could be,
+for they are out and out nice and cool."
+
+Frank gave his companion the asked-for steady look, and smilingly laid
+his hand upon his breast.
+
+"Thankye, Ben Eddin.  You always were a pleasant gentleman that it was a
+treat to have staying at Wimpole Street.  Wimpole Street!--Ha, ha, ha!"
+said Sam, laughing softly.  "My word! how comic it does seem.  What
+would they say in Wimpole Street if they could--"
+
+Sam stopped short, and a look of pain crossed his face.
+
+"Beg pardon, sir," he whispered.  "Well, Ben Eddin," he said aloud.
+"Mr Landon said I was never to whisper, and I won't do it again.  But I
+wanted to say I was sorry.  It isn't comic, or queer, or anything.  I
+know--I know it's all terrible real, and I'm going to try and help like
+a man through it all.  I was a fool and a hidiot to speak as I did--and
+you'll forgive me, Ben Eddin?  Thankye."
+
+For Frank's hand rested lightly on the man's shoulder, and for a few
+minutes there was silence in the tent.  Then Sam's face brightened, and
+he said eagerly--
+
+"I've had two goes on the camel, Ben, in these things, and somehow it
+seemed to me as if the grumbling beast took to me more in them.  He went
+easier.  I shall do it: I know I shall.  I didn't feel half so much like
+pitching on to my nose as I did before.  It's rum work, though, all the
+same."
+
+
+
+CHAPTER FOURTEEN.
+
+FRANK'S FIRST MILESTONE.
+
+It was just before daybreak on the fifth morning that everyone in the
+cluster of tents was astir.  Much had been done over night to advance
+the preparations, so that nothing remained but the loading up of the
+camels.
+
+This last was being rapidly carried out in an orderly way.  This one
+with the water-skins, that with the meal; another bore personal effects;
+while again another carried two English-made portmanteaus slung
+pannier-fashion across its back, the carefully packed contents being the
+Hakim's selected store of medicines, instruments, and surgical
+appliances, reduced to the smallest compass possible for efficacy.  The
+other leathern receptacle contained instruments and bottles that were
+heavy and cumbrous, Frank's own selection; and at the last minute, as he
+saw the extent of the preparations and what a caravan their party made
+for the long journey, he proposed to the Hakim and the professor when
+they were alone that the scientific apparatus should be left behind with
+their clothes, and other articles deemed unnecessary, in charge of the
+little tribe.
+
+"After all, they are only to play scientific conjuring tricks with,"
+said Frank.  "The idea occurred to me at first, but on more thinking the
+matter over I don't fancy that they will pay for taking."
+
+"I don't agree with you, Frank, lad," said the Hakim.  "What you call
+scientific conjuring tricks are really displays of the wonders of
+nature, and are likely to impress the ignorant quite as much as any cure
+I can effect."
+
+"Quite so," said the professor; "they appeal at once to the eye.  For my
+part, I would not on any account leave the apparatus behind."
+
+"As you like," said Frank.  "I only thought our load was getting too
+great."
+
+A few words followed with the Sheikh respecting the extent of their
+_impedimenta_ and the number of camels required, for others had to bear
+the gear of two tents, including several handsome rugs, and one way and
+another, with those devoted to riding, there were fifteen of the beasts
+of burden, while the party was increased to twelve by sturdy young men
+of the Sheikh's tribe.
+
+"His Excellency the Hakim thinks the caravan too big?" said the Sheikh,
+smiling.  "Oh, no.  It ought to be larger.  So great and wise a man must
+have a good following, or the people will think he is of no importance.
+The train is very small, but the tents are good and the camels the best
+we have in the tribe."
+
+"And suppose we are attacked by some wandering tribe or a party of the
+new Mahdi's ruffianly followers.  They may strip us and carry off the
+camels; what then?"
+
+The Sheikh smiled and shook his head.
+
+"No," he said; "they may come, but they will not rob us.  There were
+plagues in Egypt once, and there are plagues in Egypt still.  The wilder
+the people we meet, the less likely they will be to interfere with a
+learned Hakim.  They will come to him for help.  They know that he can
+take away disease, and they will think he can give disease amongst them
+like a curse.  I know what the people fancy, and what they will do.  No,
+the caravan is not too large, Excellencies.  I should have liked it to
+be larger, for there are many things that would have been useful when we
+are far away where food and water are scarce; but there are the camels
+to feed, and the more we are the slower we travel.  Like this we can go
+fast."
+
+"Fast?" said the professor, with a dry look; and the Sheikh smiled.
+
+"Fast for the desert, Excellency," he said.  "No one expects to travel
+here faster than a camel walks when left to itself."
+
+So at daybreak on that morning the last camel was laden, the last
+necessary attached, and amidst the farewell cries of the tribe assembled
+to bless and thank and pray for a safe journey to all, the leading
+camels started off, moaning and complaining, and apparently directing
+angry cries at those of their kin more fortunate than themselves who,
+instead of having to tramp over the burning, shifting sand, beneath the
+scorching desert sun, were to stop and browse around those pleasant
+water-holes, and tend their young, watched over by the women and
+children of the tribe the while.
+
+The moaning and grumbling went on for some time, as the long line of
+ungainly beasts stepped out through the cool grey, and a running
+conversation seemed to be going on, as if the camels were comparing
+notes about their loads and the unfairness of the masters, who had given
+this a load too bulky, that, one too heavy, and another, moist
+water-skins to carry, instead of a Hakim or chief.
+
+But as the stars paled out and the light increased, the camels settled
+down and shuffled silently along, while the silence extended to the
+party, who all had their feelings of sadness to bear.
+
+For doubts arose as to the success of the dangerous adventure.  The
+Sheikh felt that he was an old man, and that this journey, which must
+inevitably last for many months, might be his last.  His followers
+thought of wife or child, and were ready to sigh as they pondered on the
+perils and dangers ahead; while Hakim, professor, servant, and Frank,
+each had his feeling of heart-soreness and doubt as to how the adventure
+would end.
+
+Frank's greatest suffering was from the thought that time went on so
+fast while they went on so slowly.  Already five days were dying out
+since they reached the temporary home of the tribe, and now that the
+start was made at last, how were they moving?  In that long line of
+animals and pacing men advancing like some gigantic, elongated, crawling
+creature, whose home was the desert sand.  Creeping patiently along,
+step by step, as if time were nothing, while probably the distance might
+prove to be a thousand miles before they reached, in the neighbourhood
+of Khartoum, some town or village which might be the prisoner's
+temporary home.
+
+But there was no thought in any breast there of turning back.  The start
+had been made, and there was to be no looking northward again till the
+task that had been set was achieved.
+
+"Off at last, Frank," said the professor, who came up to where the young
+man was riding alone; "we are going splendidly."
+
+"Splendidly?"
+
+"Yes.  Everything is beautifully packed; the Sheikh's men are all
+trained camel-drivers; and I never saw a finer set of animals since I
+first came to Egypt."
+
+"But hark at them," said Frank.
+
+"What for?  It is their nature to, my lad.  Your camel is a creature
+that seems to have been born with a grievance.  I was talking about it
+to Morris just now, and he actually tried to make a joke about them."
+
+"The doctor did?" said Frank, smiling.
+
+"Fact, my dear boy.  He says it is on account of their having so many
+stomachs."
+
+"I always understood it was Nature's blessing to them to enable the poor
+beasts to exist in these waterless regions."
+
+"That's what I said to him," replied the professor; "but he said that
+might be a great benefit, but his medical experience of patients was
+that most of their troubles from early childhood arose from disordered
+stomachs, and if human beings suffered so much from only having one,
+what must it be to have a plurality of these necessary organs like a
+camel!  Enough to make anything ill-tempered, he said.  Well, you don't
+laugh."
+
+"No," said Frank sadly; "my spirits are too low."
+
+"The time of day, my lad.  I always feel at my worst about daybreak.
+You'll be better soon.  I say we are getting on capitally, and I feel no
+fear about our plan."
+
+"I do," said Frank sadly.
+
+"Why, what fresh doubts do you feel?"
+
+"Over this dumb business.  There seem to be always fresh difficulties
+cropping up."
+
+"Seem," said the professor coolly.  "Things that seem are generally like
+clouds: they soon fade away in the sunshine.  What is the new `seem'?"
+
+"About the Sheikh's men.  Now, for instance, they must notice that I am
+talking to you."
+
+"Of course they do, my lad.  You may take it for granted that they know
+quite as much as we do, and that they grasp the fact that we are playing
+parts to deceive the dervishes."
+
+"And sooner or later, out of no ill-will, but by accident, they will
+betray us."
+
+"Take it for granted that they will not do anything of the sort.  These
+Arabs are narrow-minded, and there is a good deal of the savage about
+them in connection with their carelessness regarding human life.  But my
+experience of the Arab is, that he is a gentleman, and I would as soon
+trust one whom I had made my friend as I would a man of any nation.  Now
+then, I've knocked that difficulty on the head.  What is the next?"
+
+"There are no more at present," said Frank, smiling.  "I suppose, then,
+that I need not keep trying to play my part while we are in company with
+our own party only?"
+
+"Certainly not, my dear boy," said the professor.  "Your great
+difficulty really is to contain yourself fully when strangers are with
+us."
+
+"I shall try my best," said Frank.
+
+"Yes, my fine fellow, you had better.  Now then, we've made our start,
+and you don't feel so glum, do you?"
+
+"No."
+
+"There's the reason," said the professor cheerily, as he pointed to the
+sun peering over the edge of the desert.  "Nothing like that golden ball
+for sweeping away clouds of every kind.  The only objection to his work
+is that he is a bit too thorough at times, and treats people out here as
+if they were meant to cook.  Now then, look back as well as forward; the
+camels march like a line of grenadiers.  Just as if they had been
+drilled."
+
+"But so slowly--so slowly," said Frank, with a sigh.
+
+"Here, look sharp, Sol!" cried the professor.  "Get higher; there's
+another cloud."
+
+"How can you be so light-hearted at a time like this?" said Frank
+bitterly.
+
+"Because `A merry heart goes all the day; your sad tires in a mile-a,'
+as Shakespeare says.  Because we should never carry out our plans to
+success if we went at them with sad hearts.  I found that out over many
+of my searches here.  An eager, cheery captain makes an eager, cheery
+crew who laugh at wreck.  Now then, I am going to demolish--with the
+help of the sun--that great, dense black cloud that has just risen above
+your mental horizon, my sable friend.  Your fresh cloud is the slow one.
+Now, you must remember that we have given up civilisation, steam,
+electricity, and the like, to take up the regular and only way of
+travelling here in the desert.  Some day, perhaps, we shall have the
+railway and wires from north to south; but until we do we must travel by
+caravan, and to travel by caravan you must travel in caravan fashion, in
+the old, long proved style.  You would like to hurry on and do fifty
+miles the first day, instead of ten or fifteen."
+
+"Of course," said Frank, "with such things at stake."
+
+"Exactly, my dear boy, and very naturally.  Well, we'll say you'd like
+to go forty miles to-day?"
+
+"Yes."
+
+"Couldn't be done.  Men can't walk forty miles over hot sand under a
+desert sun."
+
+"Then why not have had more camels?"
+
+"Because camels can suffer like men.  You would knock up your desert
+ships, and make them sore-footed the first day, have great difficulty in
+getting them half the distance the next day, half that the third, and no
+distance at all the fourth."
+
+"So bad as that?" said Frank.
+
+"Most likely a good deal worse.  Now we have old Ibrahim and his men,
+who know camels exactly, understand their constitutions, how much they
+can do, and how to get them to do it.  You see, we are not going on a
+week's journey."
+
+"A week's!" said Frank bitterly; "at this rate it will be six months."
+
+"Perhaps a year's," said the professor quietly.
+
+"A year's?"
+
+"Possibly; and if a camel should break down we can't send round to the
+livery stable in the next street, or order a fresh one from the Stores.
+No one knows that better than the Sheikh.  He is making the caravan
+travel so that it can go on for a year if necessary, and at the end of
+that year the camels, which mean life to us, will be fit to go on for
+another year."
+
+"But Harry--Harry--Harry!" sighed Frank sadly.
+
+"Harry is in Egypt, my dear boy, where things go on as slowly now with
+the people as they did in the days of the old Pharaohs.  Harry must
+wait, and you must wait, till we can reach him.  Try at once to realise
+where you are, and that this is the only way in which we can achieve our
+plans."
+
+"I'll try," said Frank sadly.
+
+"That's right, for if left to yourself you would press on, and in less
+than a month all that would be left of my dear lad would be a few
+whitening bones in the desert, and Harry still gazing northward and
+westward for the help that did not come."
+
+"I'm afraid you are right, Landon," said Frank sadly.
+
+"I'm sure I am, my dear lad.  Experientia has dosed me.  Africa is a
+problem, solemn and slow as its great deserts, and the people here, much
+as we look down upon them, have been Nature-taught, educated, as it
+were, from the failings of those who have gone before, how to live, how
+to travel, in short, how to exist in such a land."
+
+"Forgive me, Landon," said Frank.
+
+"Of course, my dear boy.  I know exactly how you feel.  I was just as
+bad when I first came out here.  The men maddened me with their slow
+movements when some glorious slab covered with hieroglyphics or painted
+pictures cut in, lay at the bottom of a hole into which the sand kept
+crumbling and trickling back.  I was ready to give up over and over
+again when tired out at night, but a good rest made me ready to go on
+again in the morning with fresh patience, and in the end I won."
+
+"There," said Frank, "say no more; I know you are right.  This all comes
+of your talking to me.  If you had not spoken I should have gone on in
+silence, so you have yourself to thank for my display of discontent."
+
+"Then I am very glad I have spoken," said the professor warmly, "because
+I can feel that you will take the right view of matters."
+
+"Yes, I shall try hard to."
+
+"That's right, and the best thing you can do is to enter into the
+journey from a keen observer's point of view.  Now look before you.
+What can you see?"
+
+"A wide expanse of sand baking in the sunshine."
+
+"Nothing else?"
+
+"No."
+
+"Ah, that shows how uneducated your eyes are, and how much they have to
+learn.  I'm not very clever over such things, being best when I get
+scent of a buried temple, tomb, or city.  But this waste of nothingness
+contains plenty to interest an observer, and I can help you a little if
+you will try to make the best of our journey."
+
+"I have told you I will," said Frank.
+
+"Yes; so we'll begin at once, for you may believe me that we are not
+going to journey fifteen or twenty miles to-day without seeing something
+more interesting than sand.  Here's my little binocular.  Take it, and
+we'll begin."
+
+"First of all, though," said Frank, "are we bound for some particular
+place this evening?"
+
+"Of course.  For another patch of water-holes.  Ibrahim says they are
+nothing like so good as those by the encampment, but they will do for
+the night's halt.  To-morrow we shall have to halt right in the desert
+and depend upon the water we take with us.  The next day we journey on
+to fresh wells."
+
+"I see," said Frank; "our journeys are regulated by the supplies of
+water."
+
+"Exactly.  Water means life."
+
+"And Ibrahim can trust to his knowledge of the country to go straight to
+these places?"
+
+"Yes; I have proved him over and over again.  Now then: try the glass."
+
+"Yes," said Frank, opening the case; "but tell me, do you mean to
+collect birds, insects, fossils, and plants?"
+
+"Certainly, everything we can find; but only to examine at the end of
+the day.  We must keep nothing; only make a few notes.  Well, can you
+see anything?"
+
+"Not yet.  It is rather awkward to get a steady look with the camel
+moving."
+
+"If you catch sight of anything worth looking at you can check your
+steed."
+
+"Yes, there's something moving yonder--a dog."
+
+"I doubt it," said the professor.  "Try again."
+
+"It looks like a dog.  What is it then--a fox?  Ah, it is gone behind
+those heaps yonder."
+
+"Then the desert is not quite empty, Frank.  Your dog or fox must be a
+jackal; but I wonder at your seeing him in the daylight.  Let me look at
+your heap of sand."
+
+"One minute; there are two somethings upon it.  Two of those jackals
+sitting on a heap, I suppose, by their holes.  No; one of them has
+stretched out two wings.  Why, they're vultures."
+
+"Better still.  Now I'll look.--Thanks.  Your eyes require a different
+focus from mine.  Yes.  What I expected," said the professor, handing
+back the glass.  "Have another look at your sand heap; it will repay
+observation; it is one of the milestones of the caravan roads, only they
+are not placed at regular distances.  Have you caught it again?"
+
+"I keep catching glimpses," replied Frank, with the glass to his eye;
+"but the whole thing seems to be dancing about.--Now I've got it.--No;
+gone again.--That's better.  The vultures have hopped off the heap and
+are spreading their wings.  We have scared them away.  Yes, there they
+go--a few hops, and they are rising sluggishly.  No, I can't follow them
+with the glass."
+
+"Can you see anything else?"
+
+"Yes, I've got the heap again, and there are three of the little
+dog-like creatures scurrying right away.  I say, this is a good glass!
+I can see the dusty sand rise as it is kicked by the jackals.  Here,
+let's stop the camel."
+
+"No," said the professor; "there's nothing worth stopping for."
+
+"But I want to make out something lying by that little heap.  It looks
+like a curved bone."
+
+"It is a curved bone," said the professor.
+
+"You can't see with the naked eye."
+
+"No," said the professor, smiling; "but I have been along such a track
+as this before."
+
+"But there is no track," said Frank.  "We are going over smooth sand,
+and making a fresh one."
+
+"Which will all be obliterated in a few hours.  It is a track, though,
+as your heap proves."
+
+"I should have liked to examine it, though."
+
+"Well, you will have plenty of chance, for we shall go pretty close to
+it--but on the windward side."
+
+Frank lowered the glass to look inquiringly at the speaker.
+
+"Look here," he said; "you mean something by the way you just spoke."
+
+"Certainly I did."
+
+"What?"
+
+"Take your glass, and sharpen your powers of observation, my lad.  The
+sooner you learn the desert the better for you."
+
+"I begin to have my suspicions," said Frank sharply.
+
+"If you wait a little longer, and go by there with your eyes shut, my
+lad, you will have something more than a suspicion."
+
+"Horrible!" said Frank shortly, as he once more raised his glass to his
+eyes.  "You have given me the clue.  I can make it out clearly now.
+Some poor camel that has strayed and lost its way, I suppose.  Died from
+hunger and thirst."
+
+"More likely from old age or overwork," replied the professor; "a
+milestone, only one of the many that mark the caravan tracks across the
+desert.  Some one must have passed here within forty-eight hours."
+
+"How do you know?"
+
+"By the appearance of that milestone.  If we came by here to-morrow
+there would be nothing visible but some whitening bones.  Look yonder
+without the glass.  Look straight past the leading camel, low down at
+the horizon, and now raise your eyes.  What can you see?"
+
+"Glare," said Frank.
+
+"Try again."
+
+"Nothing but more glare, and the atmosphere quivering as it rises from
+the sand."
+
+"Try once more," said the professor.  "I can see one--two--three.  Look
+higher."
+
+"Ah, I've got it now; a mere speck," said Frank eagerly--"a crow."
+
+"Make it vulture, and you will be right.  I can make out three--four of
+the loathsome creatures on their way to the feast.  They are making a
+circuit so as to drop down after we have gone by."
+
+"They fulfil a duty, though, I suppose," said Frank.
+
+"Yes, and a very necessary one," replied the professor; and this was
+evident a short time after, although the leading camel passed to
+windward of the heap, and it seemed to Frank that the animal he rode
+turned up the corners of its pendulous lips with a look of the most
+supreme disgust, as it turned its head slightly in the other direction.
+
+"That's fancy, Frank," said the professor, as the young man drew his
+attention to the camel's aspect.  "I believe the poor beasts are so
+accustomed to the sight that they take it as a matter of course."
+
+"Is it so common, then?"
+
+"Horribly common, and I hope we shall encounter nothing worse, but from
+what has been going on farther south I have my doubts."
+
+Frank rode on silently, and the professor did not speak for a few
+minutes.  Then--
+
+"Human life has always been held cheap out here.  If we were travelling
+to examine the old records I could show you them cut in stone, as you
+can see them in the museums in Cairo, or in London when we return, the
+bragging, boasting blasphemies of this or that conquering king, all to
+the same tune--`I came, I saw, I conquered; I slew so many thousands of
+the people--I took so many thousands into captivity--I built this temple
+to the gods--I raised this obelisk or that pyramid'--and all by hand
+labour, with the miserable, belaboured slaves dying by their thousands
+upon thousands under their taskmasters' lashes, to be cast afterwards
+into the Nile, or left to the jackals and vultures.  These and the
+crocodiles have always been wanted here, Frank, and as it has been so it
+is now.  There is always an `I'--a very, very big capital `I'--who is
+glorifying himself with slaughter."
+
+"No conquering king now, though," said Frank, "to leave his victories
+cut in the stones."
+
+"No, the slaughterers here nowadays are more barbarous.  Not the
+city-building monarchs, but the nomadic chiefs who force themselves to
+the height of power with their horrible religious despotism--your
+Mahdis.  It is a wonder that they find so many followers, but they do."
+
+"Fanaticism, I suppose," said Frank.
+
+"Yes, that and the love of conquest, with its additions in the shape of
+plunder.  For years past these vast tracts of fertile land bordering the
+river have gone back to waste, village after village of industrious
+people having been massacred or forced to flee for their lives."
+
+"But--I have read so little about the Khedival rule--why has not the
+Egyptian Government put a stop to all this frightful persecution?"
+
+"From want of power, my lad.  The country has been too big, the army too
+small, and the invading tribes from the south too warlike a fighting
+race to be withstood.  There is the consequence--a smiling land,
+irrigated by the mighty river which brings down the rich tropic mud from
+the highlands of the south, utterly depopulated, and strewn with the
+wretched people's bones."
+
+"And how long is this to last?" said Frank, as he thought of his
+brother's fate.
+
+"Till England stretches forth her hand to sweep the blasphemous invader
+from the land he destroys.  It is coming, Frank, but the old lion moves
+slowly and takes some time to rouse."
+
+"But when he does make his spring--!"
+
+"Yes, when he does!  The Indian tiger learned his power then.  But the
+sun is getting too hot for a political lecture, my lad.  Come, use your
+glass again.  There's another enemy about to cross our track."
+
+
+
+CHAPTER FIFTEEN.
+
+RECEIVING THE ENEMY.
+
+As Frank was about to raise the glass to his eye, the doctor, who was
+some little distance in advance, checked his camel for them to come up
+alongside, and pointed the while away to where in the distance about a
+dozen column-like clouds were spinning round as if upon pivots, while
+they advanced as if to cross their course.
+
+"A sand-storm," said the professor.  "Not much, but unpleasant enough if
+it comes upon us.  Hi!  Ibrahim; will those pillars cross before we get
+near them?"
+
+"I cannot say, Excellency," replied the old man.  "I fear not.  It will
+be better to halt."
+
+The preparations for the storm were soon made, the camels crouching down
+with their necks fully outstretched, while their riders knelt down
+sheltered by the animals and their packs, and held their thin cotton
+robes ready to veil their faces should the storm come near.
+
+It was a strange sight, the tall, pillar-like clouds sweeping along over
+the level sand like so many parts of a vast machine preparing warp and
+weft for spinning a garment to clothe the earth, and there were moments
+when the pillars were so regular in distance and motion that it seemed
+impossible not to believe that they were artificial.
+
+All was still where the travellers stood and knelt, the sun pouring down
+upon them from a clear sky, and as the Sheikh kept scanning the
+approaching storm Frank watched him to try and read what he thought.
+
+It was pretty plain, for the old man's eyes brightened and he seemed to
+breathe more freely, since it was evident that if the whirlwind kept its
+course the dust pillars would pass across the track they were making
+half a mile away.
+
+"But these storms change about so, Excellency," said the Sheikh.  "This
+may suddenly turn back or rush off right away from us.  It will, I
+think, go onward towards the great river away to our left, and sweep
+across it.  No!" he thundered out.  "Be ready; it comes," for suddenly a
+hot blast of air smote the party, fluttering their robes, and the
+whirling pillars, so distinct and clear a few minutes before, grew misty
+as if seen through a dense haze; for by one of its sudden changes the
+storm had swept round almost at right-angles, and the next minute the
+sky was obscured, the camels were groaning as they buried their heads in
+the loose sand, and the storm of hot, suffocating dust, borne on a
+mighty wind, was upon them, shrieking, tearing at everything loose, and
+buffeting its victims, who could hardly breathe, the dust choking every
+tiny crevice in the cotton cloth held over the face.
+
+The roar and rush were horrible, the confusion of intellect strange and
+peculiar, and Frank, as he cowered down behind his camel with his
+forehead pressed against the saddle to keep his veil in its place, felt
+as if he were breathing the scorching air out of some open furnace door,
+while the choking, irritating sensation in the air-passages seemed as if
+it must soon terminate in death.
+
+Doubtless that would have been their fate if the storm had lasted; but
+as quickly as it had come upon them it passed over, and in a few minutes
+the air about them was clear again, the sky blue, and the sun beating
+down, while the dust-cloud pillars were careering along, distinctly seen
+a quarter of a mile away.
+
+"Yes," said the Sheikh calmly, "they are terrible, these hot whirlwinds.
+Their Excellencies would be glad to bathe and clear their faces and
+hair from the thick dust, but there is no water save for drinking.  We
+have never had a worse one than this, Excellency, in our travels."
+
+"Never," said the professor, who knelt in the sand trying to clear his
+eyes from the impalpable brownish dust, "and I don't want to meet
+another.  This is one of the experiences of a desert journey, Frank.
+Why, lad, you are turned from black to brown."
+
+"And you the same, but from white," replied Frank, smiling.
+
+"I suppose so.  It's bad for the Hakim's white robes, too.  I say,
+Ibrahim, when shall we strike the river?"
+
+"Not for many days, Excellency; but we shall halt at fountains among the
+rocks."
+
+Five days' monotonous journeying across the sandy plains, and then five
+nights of travelling, with the days devoted to rest, had passed before
+the river was approached at a bend which brought it near the line of
+travel which the Sheikh had traced out for himself by the stars.  The
+way had been marked by the bones of camels, and in two places other
+bones scattered here and there told their horrible tale of suffering or
+attack, one skull displaying a frightful fracture that was unmistakable;
+fountain after fountain had been reached, and refreshing halts had been
+made where the waters gushed from some patch of rocks, to fertilise a
+small extent around, supporting a few palms and prickly, stunted bushes
+of acacia-like growth, before they started away again into the sand; and
+in cases where the next water-hole was too far, one, two, or three
+camels bore away water-skins well filled, to carry the party over the
+next halting-place.
+
+The necessity of keeping up the supply forced their guide to adopt a
+zigzag mode of progression, and to make his little caravan traverse
+nearly double the distance that would have been necessary could they
+have taken a bee-line towards the south.  But experience had taught all
+travellers who journey by the desert, instead of by the great waterway
+with its vast cataracts, where the pressure of the earth forced the
+water springs to the surface, and naturally these were the goals for
+which all tired travellers made.
+
+There were but few incidents during a fortnight's travel, and more than
+once Frank's heart sank as he pondered upon the little advance they had
+made; but as the professor said, they were two weeks nearer their
+journey's end, and all was well.
+
+But it was sadly monotonous.  The morning and evening skies were
+glorious, but their beauties soon began to pale, while on the hot days
+the journeys were most exhausting, and the travellers welcomed the clear
+nights when the stars blazed on high, for these were the times the
+Sheikh selected for progressing.
+
+"There is no fear then of going far astray," he said; for he knew
+nothing of the use of the compass, and the adventurers had never thought
+of bringing such an aid.
+
+In company with the doctor and professor such natural history objects as
+presented themselves were examined--lizards among the rocks, a few
+snakes, harmless, and the poison-bearing cobra; but away from the river,
+birds were rare, save those of prey, and as to animals they were heard
+more than seen.  A gazelle or two, little and graceful, bounded across
+the track, but it was at night that the howling of the jackals and the
+long, hideous snarling of hyaenas taught the travellers that there were
+plenty of these loathsome creatures hungrily waiting for the weaklings
+of such caravans as crossed the sandy plains.
+
+Twice over irregularities were pointed out by the Sheikh--places where
+the dead level was broken--as being the sites of former occupancy of
+that part of the country, the professor discoursing learnedly about the
+possibility of changes in the surface having taken place and rendered
+the country barren, while he talked eagerly of how interesting it would
+have been to encamp at such spots, gather together a score of the
+fellaheen with shovel and basket, and explore.
+
+"But there could never have been cities there," said the doctor.
+
+"But there were," replied the professor.  "Egypt _is_ not half explored
+as yet.  Out yonder where we passed to-day the land lay lower, and there
+was the trace of a wady, one of those irregular valleys which doubtless
+ran towards the Nile.  That was once filled with water, but the
+encroaching sand has filled up and covered everything.  Ah, I should
+like nothing better than to begin digging there.  It would not be long
+before I began to learn who the people were who formed that colony."
+
+At last, on the morning of the fifteenth day, when, after a longer
+night's journey than usual, a halt was made, the faint dawn began to
+show that the face of the country had undergone a change.  Sand there
+was in plenty, but it was diversified with patches of rocks, some of
+which were of great elevation, while where the camels began to increase
+their ordinary rate of speed, a ridge crossed their path, and as it grew
+lighter the travellers' eyes were greeted by the relief of green bushes,
+patches of trees, and various traces of this being a place frequented by
+man.
+
+As the sun rose, right across the east there were clouds, which seemed
+to be very different from those to which they were accustomed, and the
+reason was soon made plain by a remark from the Sheikh, who explained
+that the river ran from north to south, about a day's journey eastward,
+and that if they continued their march a few miles in that direction
+they would soon come upon signs of cultivation, and a scattered village
+or two.
+
+"And shall we go that way?" asked Frank.
+
+"Only as far as the first village, where we can buy grain--corn, and
+dhurra.  Then we strike away again into the desert, along whose borders
+we must keep.  It is safer, and we are less likely to meet with
+wandering dervish bands.  We only come near the river when it is
+necessary to refill the sacks and give the camels better feed than they
+can get near the water-holes and fountains."
+
+"I see," said Frank, as he glanced at the professor.  "To get to the
+neighbourhood of the Mahdi's people quickly we must go slowly."
+
+"Yes, Excellency, it is better so.  We stay here two days while three of
+the young men and three camels go out to buy corn in the villages
+yonder.  There is generally food to be purchased there, for the Nile
+floods run out widely a little way beyond, and the Khalifa's people have
+not reached so far as yet."
+
+"Is there not the ruin of a great temple somewhere in this direction?"
+
+"And of a city too, Excellency--El Gaebor," replied the Sheikh.  "Few
+people have gone there, for it is half a day's journey from the river
+bank.  But his Excellency will not stay to visit it now?"
+
+"No, Ibrahim; not now," said the professor.  "It is very tempting, but
+duty first.  We must come and see the ruins after we have fetched my
+friend out of the new Mahdi's grasp.  Not before."
+
+"Yes, not before," said the doctor quietly; for he spoke little on the
+way, passing long hours in a thoughtful silence, as if dreaming over the
+duties he had to perform, and acting always as if he felt that he really
+was the learned Hakim he assumed to be.
+
+There was a great charm about the wild, rocky place they had reached,
+the first rays of the sun as it rose lighting up a most picturesque
+scene made glorious by that which was so rare.  For at the foot of a
+perpendicular mass of grey, grand, sun-scorched rock, there was a pool
+of limpid water quite fifty yards across, and below it another into
+which the surplus ran, forming a place easily accessible for the camels
+and leaving the upper water unsullied for the use of man.
+
+The tent was soon pitched and a fire made for the coffee and rough cakes
+that were soon in progress of being made, while after drinking heartily,
+the camels were left browsing quietly upon the abundant foliage of the
+low-growing bushes, their burdens being stacked against the rocks which
+formed the back of their little encampment.
+
+"We ought to find some specimens here, Frank," said the professor, at
+the end of an hour, as they sat dallying over the last drops of their
+coffee.
+
+"Yes; the place looks delightful after the bare sand," replied Frank.
+"I am ready.  Shall we have a wander round at once?"
+
+"By all means," said the professor.  "We'll take the guns.  By the way,
+do you keep that revolver of yours loaded?"
+
+"Oh, no," said Frank.
+
+"But you carry it under your jacket."
+
+"Yes, I do as you suggested that I should.  But I thought we were to
+trust to cunning and not to force?"
+
+"Of course; but the fact that we are getting nearer to human beings sets
+me thinking that there's no harm in being prepared.  Load up.  You have
+cartridges in your pocket?"
+
+"No," said Frank, smiling.  "What should a black slave be doing with
+cartridges?"
+
+"Be ready to stand upon his defence in a case of emergency.  Here, take
+some of mine and fill the chambers."
+
+As he spoke the professor handed six of the little central-fire
+cartridges, while Frank drew the small revolver he carried out of a
+pocket within the breast of his cotton jacket, and began to thrust them
+in.
+
+"Going shooting?" said the doctor, looking up.
+
+"Yes," said the professor; "we may get a few birds worth eating, as
+there is water and growth here."
+
+"Better lie down and have a good rest," said the doctor.  "You both
+require it.  We must be careful about our health."
+
+"Time for that too," said the professor.  "We have to stay till the men
+have been and fetched the grain, and they must have a good rest
+afterward."
+
+Just at that moment one of the Sheikh's men, who had been to fetch a
+couple of camels which had strayed farther from the camp than seemed
+necessary, came hurriedly, driving them before him, to leave them with
+their fellows, and turn towards the Sheikh, making signs.
+
+"What does that mean?" said the doctor, springing up.  "Is something
+wrong?"
+
+The others followed the doctor's act the next moment, for some
+communication, evidently of great importance, was made to the Sheikh by
+his follower, with the result that the old man came quickly to where
+they stood, while all the men went quietly to their camels.
+
+"What is it, Ibrahim?" cried the professor.
+
+"A strong party of the Baggara are coming to the fountain, Excellency.
+The Hakim must take his seat at the door of the tent.  Put away those
+guns and be in attendance upon him, as we have arranged.  Ben Eddin, be
+waiting upon the Hakim with his pipe.  Be calm, everyone, and show no
+appearance of trouble at their coming.  You must leave all to me."
+
+
+
+CHAPTER SIXTEEN.
+
+A BAD WOUND.
+
+Those were startling minutes, and though the incident was nothing more
+than had been anticipated as one of possibly many, it had taken them by
+surprise, being long before it was expected.
+
+It was hard work too, for everyone was startled; but the advancing enemy
+were hidden somewhere beyond the piled-up rocks, and with what, under
+the circumstances, was marvellous rapidity, the Hakim, berobed and
+turbaned, seated himself in Eastern fashion upon one of the rugs laid
+for him at the tent door, while Frank brought him his long pipe, filled
+it, and was ready with a light.  Then the professor and Sam began to put
+together the breakfast things, Ibrahim stood respectfully by as if
+awaiting the wise man's orders, and the Sheikh's followers stood about,
+feeding and watering the camels.
+
+It was a picturesque group, but ready none too soon, for hardly were
+they prepared before the head of a mounted party of fierce-looking armed
+men rode into sight, and pulled up short in surprise, while their
+numbers were quadrupled before an effort was made to advance.
+
+Then, with fully a hundred in sight, a shout was uttered and with a rush
+they galloped up, spear and sword in hand, to form a semicircle about
+the halting party, shutting them in from all chance of escape, and then
+seemed about to charge home, but they were checked by another shout and
+reins were drawn, the fiery horses they rode champing their cruel bits
+and tossing the foam in all directions.
+
+It was a critical minute, and the slightest display of resistance would
+have meant indiscriminate slaughter, its hopelessness being shown by the
+rapid increase of the savage force, more and more riding into sight till
+fully two hundred were making for the water pools.
+
+But no one stirred save Frank, who calmly held the glowing piece of fuel
+to the Hakim's pipe, while the latter sat unmoved, calm, and grand of
+aspect, slowly inhaling and exhaling the fragrant smoke and gazing at
+the warlike crowd which surrounded his little tent.
+
+By this time horse, foot, and camel men, the whole party, had pressed
+close up to the advance, and a burst of eager talking arose, the aspect
+of the savage warriors indicating that they believed they had come
+suddenly upon a prize.  But they were evidently under the strong hand of
+some form of discipline, for they waited while a couple of
+fierce-looking leaders, whose shaggy black hair stood straight up and
+outward like some kind of cap, pressed the sides of their horses and
+walked them forward, to be met by Ibrahim, who advanced with great
+dignity, and in response to a fierce question as to who and what they
+were, saluted them gravely and announced that they were in the presence
+of a great Frankish Hakim travelling through the land upon his great
+mission to heal the sick and wounded.
+
+To this, the younger of the two burst into a mocking laugh and said
+something to his fellow leader, who responded by laying a hand upon his
+companion's rein as he spoke haughtily in his own tongue to Ibrahim, his
+words having a threatening sound.
+
+The Sheikh's voice sounded as haughty and as firm, and he waved his hand
+around, while to Frank it seemed that the old man was repelling some
+accusation and saying--
+
+"If we were enemies to you and yours should we come unarmed and in peace
+like this?"  Then his voice grew sterner and his eyes flashed, as,
+uncomprehended by those for whom he was spokesman, he cried--
+
+"Retire your men ere you disturb the great Hakim's repose.  Has he not
+journeyed through the night on his way to the south to heal and cure,
+and as you see, he is resting before he takes his sleep.  Beware how you
+anger him, for as he can heal so can he bring down upon all the disease
+and death he has removed from others."
+
+The younger man made a scornful gesture, but his elder was evidently
+impressed, and Ibrahim continued--
+
+"You have come for water for your horses and camels; take it silently,
+and leave the great Hakim in peace.  Anger him not, lest at a word and a
+wave of the hand he turn the sweet water into bitterness that shall
+wither all who drink.  Horse, camel, or man shall perish if he speak the
+word."
+
+The Sheikh's words were heard and understood by many; and a low, angry
+murmur arose, which ran right to the rear.
+
+"Is it peace?" said the Sheikh calmly, as he noted the impression he had
+made; "if so the pool of water is sweet for all; and if you have sick or
+wounded men among you, bring them to the Hakim that he may make them
+whole."
+
+They were veritable words of wisdom that Ibrahim boldly spoke, and full
+of force, for though it was extremely doubtful whether, in case of an
+inimical display, the doctor would have either been able or willing to
+make use of his power, he had with him that which would, if deftly
+distributed, have poisoned the water so that it would have been
+dangerous to man or beast.
+
+They were words of wisdom, though, for they went direct to the
+understanding and interests of the superstitious tribe, whose readiness
+to believe in any so-called prophet or learned doctor was easily
+awakened, while as it happened, Ibrahim's last command had gone home to
+its mark at once.
+
+For by a fortunate accident, the chief who seemed of the greater
+importance, turned sharply to his companion and handed to him the shield
+and two leaf-bladed spears he carried, and then threw himself from the
+beautiful Arab horse he rode, giving the bridle to one of his followers.
+
+And now for the first time it was evident that his left arm, which had
+been covered by the shield, was injured, for it was supported by a broad
+scarf passed round his neck.
+
+He strode forward haughtily, taking his steps slowly with head thrown
+back, and as Frank gazed at him with heart throbbing painfully and
+heavily under the stress of his emotion, he could not help thinking how
+noble and fierce a warrior the Baggara looked, with his simple white
+robe, and how dangerous an enemy with the curved dagger in his girdle,
+and long, keen, crusader-like sword hanging from a kind of baldric from
+his right shoulder.
+
+As he approached Morris, Frank turned his eyes for a moment upon his
+brother's friend, and a pang shot through him, for the doctor sat
+cross-legged holding the pipe, in his studied pose, slowly exhaling a
+little smoke, but his face looked fixed and strange, his eyes were half
+closed, and he seemed to be unconscious of all that was going on.
+
+"He has lost his nerve!" thought Frank in agony, and he drew his breath
+hard.  "What shall I do?"
+
+The next glance, though, was at the Baggara chief, who in a contemptuous
+way snatched the sling from his left arm, and as if to display his scorn
+of wounds to his followers he lightly threw back the loose cotton sleeve
+of his robe to his shoulder, and held out the roughly bandaged arm
+before the seated surgeon, saying scoffingly in his own tongue--
+
+"There, if you are a learned Hakim, cure that."
+
+There was utter silence now, and necks were craning forward and flashing
+eyes eagerly gazing all around, but to Frank's horror, Morris did not
+pay the slightest heed, merely raised the amber mouth-piece of his pipe
+to his lips and inhaled more smoke, his eyes still half-closed, while he
+looked as if he were about to sink into a trance.
+
+The words were on Frank's lips to say quickly, "Pray, pray rouse
+yourself, or we are lost!" but he had presence of mind enough left to
+press his teeth firmly together and gaze fixedly at the Baggara, whose
+dark eyes flashed angrily as he stamped one foot and advanced a little
+more, to repeat his words.  Still Morris did not stir, and it was only
+by the most determined effort that Frank kept himself from turning
+sharply to dart a look of horror at Landon and Sam.
+
+But it was the thought of his brother that gave him the strength, and
+the next moment he breathed a sigh of relief, for the Sheikh stepped
+close up to the doctor, raising a hand warningly to the Baggara.
+
+"The learned Hakim," he said, "is deep in thought upon the wisdom with
+which he heals;" and then, bending towards the doctor's ear, he said in
+a low, distinct voice, in English--
+
+"A great chief is here, O learned one.  He is wounded and in pain, and
+asks your aid."
+
+As Ibrahim spoke the doctor slowly raised his eyelids and gazed at the
+speaker, turning to him the while as if ignorant of the presence of the
+chief and the crowd around.
+
+Then bending his head slowly as if in assent, he turned to gaze full in
+the Baggara's scornful eyes, his face lighting up with keen
+intelligence, and continuing his fixed look till the chief made an angry
+gesture and for a moment lowered his eyes.
+
+It was only for a moment, though, and then he looked fixedly at the
+doctor again, the scornful smile upon his lip growing more marked as he
+keenly watched all that was done.
+
+"Splendid bit of acting," said the professor to himself, as he stood
+with folded arms a little behind his friend's left hand, and he too drew
+a breath of relief as with calm dignity Morris handed his pipe to Frank,
+whose black face glistened as he took it with a solemn bow and handed it
+to Sam with a sign that he should take it into the tent, noting how the
+man's hand trembled, but avoiding his eyes, and turning sharply to the
+scene being enacted behind him.
+
+As he turned, it was to see the Hakim raise his strong, white hands to
+spread his great dark beard over his chest, and then sign to the chief
+to kneel.
+
+This was met by an angry look of resentment, and the younger chief
+uttered a sharp ejaculation, which was followed by a murmur behind him.
+
+It was a critical moment, but the natural superstition in the Baggara
+proved too strong.  He yielded to the powerful gaze which completely
+mastered his, and went slowly down on one knee, still holding out his
+injured arm.
+
+As this was done the doctor threw back the sleeves of his robes, turned
+up his beautifully clean shirt-sleeves, and displayed his strong white
+arms.  Then raising his hands he removed his jewelled turban and passed
+it to the professor, who was ready to take it in his hands, to hold it
+with reverent care.
+
+Once more a low murmur ran round the crowd, as with increased curiosity
+they stared at the noble white head of the grand-looking man seated
+before them, while their curiosity was raised to the highest pitch.
+
+The Hakim's movements were rapid now; he took the chief's swarthy hand
+in his, and his fingers were cool and soft to the burning skin he
+touched.  Then raising his right he laid it upon the biceps, to find all
+tensely swollen and fevered.
+
+The next minute he had taken a glittering little knife from the satchel
+he wore at his waist, and passed the keen point beneath the coarse
+cotton bandage, dividing it twice, so that the edges sprang apart, for
+the cloth was cutting deeply into the swollen flesh.
+
+With deft fingers then he quickly unrolled the bandage, letting the
+foul, badly stained cotton fall upon the sand at his feet, laying bare
+to the sunlight a terrible cut running up from just above the wrist to
+the elbow joint, evidently caused by the thrust of one of the
+leaf-bladed spears, and now from long neglect horribly inflamed, and
+threatening danger, while the suffering it must have caused had
+doubtless been extreme.
+
+The Hakim's examination was quick, and as he ran his eyes over the wound
+and touched it here and there, he spoke without turning his head.
+
+"Basin, sponges, plenty of water.  Lint, bandages, dressings,
+antiseptics, and my instruments."
+
+Frank bowed, and hurried into the tent, while the Hakim supported the
+injured arm and raised his eyes to the Baggara chief, whose gaze was
+fixed upon him searchingly, and gave him a calm, reassuring smile, as if
+saying, "Wait, and you shall be cured."
+
+There was another low murmur now, and the crowd was pressing closer in,
+but Ibrahim's lips parted as he raised his hands in protest, and at a
+harsh command from the second chief the men stood fast.
+
+The next minute Frank came out, followed by Sam bearing the doctor's
+surgical case and the necessaries he had ordered to be brought, every
+eye watching as these were opened out.
+
+"Come and help, Landon," said the doctor quickly, and the great turban
+was handed to Sam to bear into the tent, while the professor took up the
+brass basin and held it ready for Frank to fill, the latter then placing
+his hands ready to support the patient's arm.
+
+During the next quarter of an hour the Baggara looked curiously on while
+his festering wound was manipulated by the light touches of one of
+London's most skilful surgeons, armed with the newest discoveries of
+science.  And formidable as the task was, and severe the treatment,
+those firm white hands, and the cleansing, cooling applications gave
+more relief than pain, so that the stoical patient, when the touches
+from glittering knife and keen needle had ceased and given way to
+medicated cotton wool, lint, and tenderly applied supporting bandages,
+uttered a sigh of relief, and the scornful look of contempt gave way to
+one of perfect satisfaction, for to him this was a miracle indeed.
+
+A few minutes later the scarf was retied from the shoulder so that the
+wounded arm rested comfortably and free from pain, the Baggara smiling
+at his leech as he rose, and in an instant a tremendous shout rent the
+air.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER SEVENTEEN.
+
+THE SURGEON'S FEE.
+
+The Hakim's patient was evidently a man of stern determination--of iron
+will; but he was only human after all, and he turned slowly to his
+brother chief, to lay his uninjured hand upon his shoulder to support
+himself, evidently making a brave effort to master the almost inevitable
+consequences of the long operation.
+
+But Morris was watching him keenly, and quite prepared.  A few words to
+Frank resulted in a small glass of water being placed in his hand in
+company with a bottle and graduated measure; a small quantity of a
+colourless fluid was transferred to the glass, and the Hakim rose and
+walked with dignified pace to where the two chiefs stood, the younger
+scowling fiercely now as he saw that his companion was beginning to
+totter upon his legs and swaying slightly as if to fall.
+
+But the Hakim paid no heed to his fierce glances, and held the glass to
+his patient.
+
+"_Bibe_," he said, in a tone of command, using medical Latin in
+preference to English.
+
+At the sound of his voice the Baggara, whose countenance had turned of a
+peculiar, muddy hue, revived and turned to him sharply, saw, and
+stretched out his hand eagerly for the glass, but shrank back directly
+with a look of suspicion.
+
+The Hakim smiled, raised the glass to his lips, and looking frankly in
+his patient's eyes drank about a third of the liquid slowly, and would
+have gone on, but the Baggara signed to him to desist, took the glass,
+and swallowed the remainder, to stand for a few minutes with his eyes
+half-closed and his hand clutching his brother chief's arm desperately.
+
+"Why doesn't he make him lie down?" said the professor in a low tone to
+Frank, who was standing by his companion's side as if waiting for the
+Hakim's next command, but watching everything keenly the while.
+
+"Afraid it would have a bad effect upon the people," said Frank in the
+same low tone.  "He has given him a dose of ammonia."
+
+"If he goes down, my lad, I'm afraid that it will be bad for us."
+
+"Afraid?" replied Frank.  "We have made our plunge, and nothing must
+make us afraid."
+
+"That's right," said the professor; "but I wish that stuff would begin
+to act."
+
+"It is beginning to act," said Frank.  "Look!"
+
+He was right, for the chief drew a deep breath, his muscles seemed to be
+growing more firm, and he stepped back from his companion, then signed
+for his shield to be handed to him, placed the loops over the bandaged
+arm, took his two spears, beckoned to the follower who held his horse,
+and stood for a minute or two making believe to pat its beautiful,
+arching neck and arrange its mane before placing a foot in the stirrup
+and springing into the saddle, when another shout arose from his
+followers, and Frank breathed more freely.
+
+"That's about as savage, bloodthirsty a brute as his younger companion,"
+said the professor softly; "but he's a brave man."
+
+"Yes," said Frank laconically, as he kept his eyes fixed nervously upon
+the chief.  "Think he'll be able to keep his seat?"
+
+"I hope so."
+
+"So do I, for if he comes off with a thud I won't give much for our
+lives.  Hah! he has mastered it."
+
+"Yes, he has mastered it all," said Frank.  "He must have been horribly
+sick and faint."
+
+"And that ammonia is not a very exhilarating draught to take.  I know
+the abomination pretty well.  Soap and water is delicious in comparison,
+especially if it is scented."
+
+All this time the Hakim stood motionless, watching his patient gravely,
+and waiting for the result which soon came.  For the peril had passed,
+the Baggara chief drawing himself up in his saddle, making his beautiful
+Arab charger rear up, and then letting him gallop for a hundred yards or
+so in full sight of his men, who began to shout frantically.  Then
+pulling the horse down upon its haunches, he turned, galloped back, and
+checked the graceful creature again in front of the Hakim, to bend over
+and say a few words before rejoining his brother chief.
+
+"What said he, Ibrahim?" asked the doctor in a whisper, without moving
+his head or seeming to speak.
+
+"That the Hakim is a great prophet, and that it is peace.  Excellency,
+they will not hurt us now."
+
+This was soon made evident, for the younger chief began to give orders,
+and the men dismounted and formed themselves into a camp about a hundred
+yards away from the Hakim's tent.  Then in fairly regular order the
+horses and camels were led up to the water, allowed to drink, and then
+led away, all being done so as not to interfere with Ibrahim's train of
+camels, which were now pastured on the other side of the tent, to which
+the Hakim had returned, and where Frank, the professor, and Sam were
+busy replacing the various articles that had been brought out.
+
+Here a little conference was held around the doctor, who had resumed his
+calm and thoughtful attitude, but who, beneath his solemn aspect, was as
+excited as the rest.
+
+"Well, Frank, lad," he said, "did it go satisfactorily?"
+
+"Of course," replied the young man; "how could it be otherwise.  It was
+real."
+
+"Splendid," said the professor.  "Robert, old fellow, I was proud of
+you."
+
+"I don't think you would have been, Fred, if you could have seen
+inside."
+
+"What do you mean--not nervous?"
+
+"I was never worse in my life.  I wonder I got through it as I did.  You
+both noticed how my hands shook."
+
+"That I did not," said Frank warmly.  "You seemed to me as firm as a
+rock."
+
+"Appearances are very deceitful," said the doctor with a quaint look.
+"Well, I did my best for him.  He was in a terrible state."
+
+At that moment the Sheikh, who had been giving orders to his young men
+not to let the camels stray, rejoined them, and he gave the doctor a
+look full of reverence.
+
+"It was a great, a noble cure, O Hakim," he said.  "That wound was
+dangerous, was it not?"
+
+"He would have been delirious by this time to-morrow, Ibrahim," said the
+doctor.
+
+"Delirious?" said the Sheikh, hesitating.  "Oh, yes, I know--mad."
+
+"And blood-poisoning would have set in.  Without attention he would have
+been a dead man before a week had passed."
+
+"But now, O Hakim--now?"
+
+"With care and attention to his wound he will soon recover."
+
+"Hah!  It is good.  His people would have slain us if he had fallen."
+
+"But what about now, Ibrahim?" said the professor.  "He said it was
+peace, but will he keep his word and let us go?"
+
+"Hah!" said the Sheikh quietly; "I think not yet.  If their Excellencies
+look around without seeming to notice they will see that men have been
+placed in five places at a distance like sentries of the Khedival
+guard."
+
+"To keep a look out for the approach of enemies," said Frank quickly.
+"Well, it is soldierly."
+
+"It might be to keep us from stealing away," said the Sheikh drily.
+
+"Yes, of course," said the professor.  "But look here, Ibrahim, who are
+these likely to be?"
+
+"One of the wandering bands of the desert, Excellency, who rob and
+murder all they come across."
+
+"Pleasant neighbours!" said the doctor quietly.
+
+"But are they likely to be connected with the Khalifa--the Mahdi, or any
+of that party?" said the professor.
+
+"I think so, Excellency," replied the Sheikh.  "These people travel far
+and wide.  Perhaps this is one of the Khalifa's chiefs."
+
+"Well, then--listen, all of you," said the professor.  "If these
+sentries are to keep us in bounds we are prisoners, Ibrahim?"
+
+"Yes, Excellency."
+
+"And we shall have to go where they go, for they will never stay here."
+
+"It is right, Excellencies."
+
+"And you think it possible that this may be one of the new Mahdi's
+wandering bands?"
+
+"Yes, Excellency; sent forth to see if the English and Egyptian forces
+are advancing, as well as to gather plunder."
+
+"Then by and by they will rejoin their leader far away yonder at
+Omdurman or Khartoum?"
+
+"It is most likely, Excellency."
+
+"Then so long as they treat us decently it seems to me that nothing
+could have happened better," continued the professor; "they will lead us
+exactly where we want to go, and see that no other party takes a fancy
+to our heads."
+
+"That is exactly what I thought, Excellency," said the Sheikh; "but I
+was afraid to speak."
+
+"Why?" said the doctor sharply.
+
+The old man shrugged his shoulders.
+
+"Their Excellencies took me to be their guide, and placed themselves in
+my hands.  They said, `We have faith in you and your young men, who will
+protect us.'"
+
+"Yes," said the doctor.  "Go on."
+
+"Well, Excellency, I have failed."
+
+"How failed?" said the professor sharply.
+
+"I have brought you into danger--into the hands of the enemy at once."
+
+"Then you feel that we are prisoners?" said the doctor sternly.
+
+"I must be truthful with those who have trusted me, Excellency.  I fear
+that these sons of evil will not let us go."
+
+"I'm afraid you are right, Ibrahim.  No, I promised you, Frank, that I
+would not be afraid of anything now.  I feel, then, that you are right.
+But look here, so long as they treat us well nothing could have happened
+better for us."
+
+"Nothing, Excellency, for at some time or another we shall be brought to
+the heads of the invading tribes."
+
+"And sooner or later if we tried we might escape."
+
+"Yes, Excellency."
+
+"Then where is the cause for fear?"
+
+"I feared that their Excellencies would not look upon it like this,"
+said the Sheikh humbly.  "I knew that they must find out before many
+hours that we were prisoners, and then I felt that they would turn and
+reproach me for what I had done."
+
+"When you know us better, Ibrahim," said the doctor quietly, "you will
+find that we are not unreasonable.  Then as I see it now, _if_--I say
+_if_ these ruffians treat us well we are on the high road to the place
+we seek to reach."
+
+"Yes, O Hakim."
+
+"But on the other hand, as we have found out this morning, everything
+depends upon my treatment of my patients."
+
+"Yes, O Hakim, it is so," replied the Sheikh sadly.
+
+"Pleasant for a weak man," said the doctor drily.  "If I cure I am a
+prophet; if I fail--"
+
+"You'll be a Hakim without a head, old fellow," said the professor.
+"Ergo, as Shakespeare says, you must not fail.  It was rather a close
+shave, too, this morning--there, I wasn't alluding to you, Sam," he
+continued, turning to the man, who was looking ghastly, as he stood
+close by hearing every word.  "There, pluck up, my lad; your master did
+cure this time.  Well, Frank, you are silent.  How do matters strike
+you?"
+
+"It seems to me that we have thoroughly fallen upon our feet, and have
+nothing to mind."
+
+"So long as these people use us well," said the doctor.
+
+"Well, if they do not we have still our old plan to fall back upon.  We
+must take to the camels and flee for our lives, even if we leave
+everything else behind."
+
+"And with our task undone, Landon," said Frank bitterly.
+
+"Who said anything about leaving our task undone?  Nothing of the kind.
+It will only mean starting afresh, and from right up the country instead
+of from Cairo."
+
+"Well," said the doctor, "as everything depends upon their treating us
+well, and I occupy so critical a position, I must do my best."
+
+"Which we know you will," said the professor, "of course.  But they are
+not likely to keep us long, are they, Ibrahim--only while their chiefs
+wound is bad?"
+
+"It is impossible to say, Excellency.  It is a dangerous position."
+
+"Then if we get a chance of leaving it we must seize it.  They don't
+seem very grateful or friendly even now."
+
+"Your Excellency is not quite right," said the Sheikh gravely.
+"Behold!"
+
+He pointed to four of the Baggara coming towards the tent, and all well
+laden.  One bore a fine young kid, another half a dozen chickens in an
+open basket in one hand, while slung over his shoulder were a large
+bunch of bananas and a bunch of dates.  The others bore each a large bag
+of meal.
+
+These they set down at once at the Hakim's feet, bowing solemnly and low
+the while, and went off without a word.
+
+"Come, doctor," said the professor merrily, as soon as the men were out
+of hearing, "you never had such a fee as that before!"
+
+"And look at its value as a token of friendliness on our captors'
+behalf!" cried Frank eagerly.
+
+"It's splendid!" said the professor.  "All that payment in kind, far
+better than guineas out here, for medicine and attendance to one man."
+
+"If his Excellency looks yonder," said the old Sheikh drily, "he will
+find that it is not for curing one wounded man.  The great Hakim's fame
+is spreading fast."
+
+"One, two, three, four--why, there must be over twenty patients coming,
+Bob!" cried the professor, looking quite aghast.  "You've got to do your
+best now, old fellow, and no mistake.  But they can't be all chiefs."
+
+The professor was well within bounds in saying twenty, for coming slowly
+on, for the most part walking, but several on horse or camel, and in
+more than one case supported by companions, came the whole of the sick
+and injured of the tribe, the Hakim's treatment of their chief having
+brought those who had suffered during their wandering raid in the
+desert; and the calmness for a few moments deserted the Hakim's
+countenance.
+
+But he was soon himself again, and ready for what he saw at a glance
+must be a long and heavy task--one that would call forth all his
+energies.
+
+"It is fortunate that I am a surgeon, and not a doctor pure and simple,"
+he said quietly, "for these seem to be all injuries received in fight.
+Come, Frank, Landon, our work is waiting."
+
+"Yes," said the professor.  "You, Sam, look after the commissariat
+department."
+
+"The which, sir?" said the man, staring.
+
+"Well, the provisions, and clear away--for action, eh, Frank?"
+
+"Yes, and it's fortunate that the Hakim has had his breakfast."
+
+
+
+CHAPTER EIGHTEEN.
+
+STOLEN FOOD.
+
+The Hakim, even if looked upon by the semi-savages of the desert as a
+prophet, was human enough to require a second meal before he had
+finished what to ordinary people would have been a loathsome task; but
+fortunately for suffering humanity the great profession of the surgeon
+becomes to him of such intense interest, and so full of grand problems
+in the fight against death, that he forgets the horrors and sees
+comparatively little of that which makes the unused turn half fainting
+away.
+
+In this instance the Baggara chief and his followers had been for many
+weeks away from the main body of the invading tribes, fighting,
+plundering, destroying, and leaving devastation plainly marked in their
+locust-like track.  But all this had not been accomplished without
+suffering and loss to the tribe.  Many had perished from disease; others
+had been cut down in some onslaught.  More had been sick or wounded and
+had recovered, but there was a numerous remnant of sufferers, active men
+who had once been strong, but now, weakened by suffering, retained just
+enough force to enable them to keep in their places, held up to a great
+extent by the cruel knowledge that if they failed ever so little more
+they would be left behind in a region where people, the wild beast, and
+Nature herself, were all combined against them.  For the wounded man if
+found by the suffering villagers was remorselessly slaughtered; the
+beasts and birds soon spied out the weakling and followed him night and
+day till the morning when he was too much chilled by the cold night dews
+to rise again to tramp on in search of water or solid food; and then
+first one and then another rushed in from the sands, or stooped from
+above, to rend and tear, and soon enough all was over, and the carrion
+seekers had had their fill.
+
+It was a knot of these--sick and wounded--that were led or tramped up to
+the front of the Hakim's tent, and there paused or were set down, a
+dreadful row, horrible of aspect, bandaged, unkempt, vilely dirty,
+feeble, and hopeless.  They made no complaint, sent up no appeal, but
+sat or lay there gazing at the handsome, polished gentleman seated
+blandly before them, the mark of all those pleading, imploring eyes,
+silently asking him to give them back their lost health and strength.
+
+"Look at them," said the doctor sadly; "one is bound to pity and to
+help, when hard, matter-of-fact self says, Why should they be helped--
+why should they be made strong again, to go on indulging in destruction
+and dealing death?"
+
+"It's our way of doing things," said the professor.
+
+"Yes, Heaven be praised!" replied the doctor.  "No one would change it
+if he could."
+
+"But," said Frank, "there is not a wounded or suffering man here who has
+not brought all his trouble upon himself.  If he had given up the sword
+and spear and stayed in his own country to cultivate his own lands he
+would have been healthy and well."
+
+"Of course," said the professor; "and therefore you would let the
+miserable wretches die out of the way?"
+
+"Nothing of the kind," cried Frank indignantly.  "They are human beings,
+suffering terribly, and I would do all I could to help them."
+
+"Don't get excited," said the doctor smiling, "or you will have some of
+them noticing that you are not the Hakim's dumb slave.  Come, our work
+is waiting."
+
+It was, and they worked on hour after hour at the terrible task; but it
+was impossible not to see the impression the doctor made upon his
+savage-looking patients, who for the most part hesitated doubting and
+half resenting his acts; but in a few minutes to a man they resigned
+themselves to his influence, and when at last they crawled or were borne
+away by companions, there was not one who was not ready to sing the
+praises of the Hakim, not from being cured, but from the change wrought
+by a skilful surgeon upon neglected wounds, and the sensations of rest
+and relief afforded by a doctor who looked upon the ailments from which
+the patients suffered as the simplest forms of disease, caused by
+neglect, and treated them accordingly.
+
+In the Baggara camp that night there was but one theme of conversation.
+It was not with regard to the plunder taken in the last village that had
+been sacked, and the great amount of corn that it was impossible to
+bring away, and consequently had to be destroyed, but of the wondrous
+holy man--this prophet--this inspired Hakim, whose touch to the fiery,
+throbbing wound was softer than that of a woman, and who caused a gentle
+sleep to fall upon him in whose flesh that ragged bullet lay deep, or in
+whom the broken spear-top was rankling and stabbing at every movement,
+while it refused to give way to the cutting and poulticing of their own
+wise men.
+
+It was wonderful, the Baggara said, and they declared that they did not
+care whether he was a follower of the Prophet or of any other belief;
+all they knew was that he was inspired; otherwise how could he make men
+breathe against their will and then fall into that deep sleep, suffering
+pain before, and then waking up how long after who could tell, with the
+bullet taken away, the rankling spear-point no longer imbedded in the
+muscle, the fever gone, and instead a cool, soft bandage and a feeling
+of rest.
+
+Oh, the Hakim was a great, an inspired prophet, they said; and had one
+told them that this inspiration was that of science and patient search
+to win a knowledge of the wonders of our great creation, they would have
+laughed him to scorn.
+
+On the other hand, in the Hakim's little camp of a couple of tents,
+there was the knowledge of some five-and-twenty men lying down to rest
+as they had not lain for many weary days, and that the chief was like
+another man, for he had been to the Hakim's tent himself, to bend low to
+the man of wisdom, and tell him, through the lips of Ibrahim, that the
+calm that had come over his spirit was marvellous, and that the wound
+only throbbed now and ached, but in a way that he was man enough to
+bear.
+
+At this the Hakim had looked grave, and bidden him recline upon the rug
+outside the tent door, taking the arm in hand once more and gently
+unfastening the bandages before bathing and applying a soothing
+antiseptic application upon fresh lint to the wound, and bandaging less
+tightly once again.
+
+After this the savage warrior arose, to bend with more reverence than
+ever over the Hakim's hand, bidding Ibrahim tell him that now he was at
+peace, and ask him if there was anything he needed for himself and
+followers.
+
+It was after the chief had returned to his own rough tent that the
+discourse took a strange turn.
+
+Naturally enough further gifts for the present had been declined on the
+ground that they had an ample supply of their own, to which he had made
+so thoughtful an addition.  But now that the last sufferer had left the
+neighbourhood of the tent, and the Hakim and his aides had prepared
+themselves for their well-earned evening meal.  Sam and one of the
+Sheikh's young men had been busy over a fire, and there was ready for
+the Hakim's repast one portion of the roasted kid, the other being
+handed over to the Sheikh's party.
+
+The cleverly cooked and browned meat sent forth an appetising odour, the
+evening was cool, and the sky of a delicious hue; and spread upon a
+cloth upon the level sand all was ready, including the newly baked
+cakes, with the additional luxury of fruit--rich, golden-yellow, buttery
+bananas such as are not known in Europe, and the cloying but wholesome
+honey-flavoured date.
+
+All looked tempting, for the cool draughts of clear water from the
+spring and the restful bathe had taken away the weary sensation of
+nauseating distaste for food consequent upon the ordeal through which
+the doctor and his companions had passed.
+
+But then just as the party had taken their seats, the professor, in a
+grimly malicious way, proceeded to spoil the feast.
+
+"Such a shame," he said solemnly; "that kid and the luscious fruit we
+are going to eat must have been plundered by these savage ruffians from
+some village.  I don't think we shall either of us have the heart to
+touch a bit."
+
+A blank silence seemed to fall upon the group, the Hakim thrusting away
+his knife, Frank, who half knelt behind him, as a slave should, waiting
+for such morsels as the Hakim might condescend to pass, darted a fierce
+look at the speaker, and the Sheikh, who shared their table now and was
+in the act of behaving, in spite of his intercourse with Europeans, in a
+very ungentlemanly way--for he was trying the edge of his knife--dropped
+it as if he had cut his thumb, and stared as angrily as Frank.
+
+"But, Landon, old friend," said the Hakim at last, "I am hungry!  Surely
+it is not our fault that the food was stolen--if it was."
+
+"No, but we should be encouraging the Baggara to go on plundering if we
+ate these things."
+
+"Do you think so really?" said the doctor; and then a change came over
+the professor's face which made Morris shake his head and attack the
+much needed food at once.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER NINETEEN.
+
+THE EMIR'S SON.
+
+It was a strange experience to sit outside the tent door that night,
+breathing the soft moist air which seemed so different from the dry,
+harsh, parching wind of the desert.  There was the pleasant scent of
+growing plants, too, rising from wherever the overflow from the
+fountains permeated the sand, quite unseen in the broad sunshine, but
+showing its effect in a blush of green which gradually grew less and
+less, till at a few hundred yards from the rocks and pools it died right
+away and all was arid barrenness once more.
+
+Now and then a wailing howl came from a distance, to be answered here
+and there by the prowling animals which scented the food of the camp,
+and hung about waiting till the caravans had passed on to make a rush in
+safety for the scraps that were left, with the result that the
+neighbourhood of the pools and wells was found free from all refuse by
+the next comers.
+
+The Hakim's party was too weary with the nervous excitement and hard
+labour of the past day to talk much, finding it pleasanter to sit or
+recline and listen to the various sounds that reached their ears from
+the Baggara camp or far out in the desert, till after being absent for
+some little time the Sheikh came softly up to the tent and waited to be
+questioned.  He did not have to wait long, for the professor attacked
+him at once.
+
+"Well, Ibrahim," he said, "what news?"
+
+"Little, Excellency.  The Baggara have sentries out all round the camp."
+
+"And ours?"
+
+"Yes, Excellency; we are prisoners."
+
+"But in no danger?"
+
+"No, Excellency.  It is peace between us and the fighting men.  But if
+they are attacked in the night or just before daybreak we are in bad
+company, as you would say, and we shall perish with these tribesmen if
+they are beaten."
+
+"That sounds bad," said the professor.  "But look here, who is likely to
+attack their camp?"
+
+"Who can say, Excellency?  Like the people of old, their hand is against
+every man, and every man's hand is against them.  They are wandering
+about harassing villages, plundering, and making slaves.  Some of the
+village people may take heart and join together to slay them; or the
+Khedive's men may hear of their being in the neighbourhood, and come
+from boats upon the river.  There may be soldiers of your own journeying
+south, who, hearing from spies that a party of the Khalifa's men have
+come so far north, would be sure to try and scatter them like the sand
+before the storm."
+
+"But, on the other hand," said the doctor quietly, "none of these things
+may happen, and we may sleep in peace and trust that all will be well."
+
+"Yes, Excellency; that is what we must do always."
+
+"Then let us sleep while we can," said the doctor.  "I am very weary,
+and there is sure to be plenty more hard work to-morrow."
+
+The Hakim's words were taken as law, and as there were very few
+preparations to make, a short time only elapsed before all were sleeping
+soundly, it being deemed superfluous to attempt to watch, since they
+were utterly helpless in the enemy's hands.
+
+At such a time restless wakefulness might have been expected, but sleep
+came, deep and refreshing, out in the desert whenever they were in the
+neighbourhood of water.  Frank lay thinking of the day's work with its
+risks and chances, and then of his brother far away to the south; but in
+about a quarter of an hour he was sleeping soundly as the rest, till
+hours had passed, when, as if conscious of something being near, he
+awoke suddenly, to find that all was dark and so still that, setting
+down his feelings to imagination, he sank back, with a sigh, and was
+dropping off to sleep again when from far away out in the desert there
+was the shrill neigh of a horse, and he started up again, to hear the
+challenge answered from where the Baggara horses and camels were
+picketed or lying about.
+
+This was startling, suggesting as it did the approach of other horsemen,
+who might be inimical and about to attack.  On the other hand, though,
+he reasoned that a single horse might have broken away from where it was
+tethered.  He recalled, too, what the Sheikh had said about sentries
+being scattered about so that no danger could approach without an alarm
+being given, and he was settling down once more when, plainly enough and
+increasing in loudness, there came through the darkness of the night the
+dull, rustling trampling of horses coming at a sharp canter over the
+sand.
+
+But for a minute or so there was no warning uttered--no cry of alarm.
+Then all at once there was a shout and a reply.  Silence again, and
+Frank lay wondering whether this was a good or evil sign, since a sentry
+might have been cut down at once.
+
+Then voices were plainly heard as of people talking loudly, and it
+seemed to be impossible that this could mean danger.  So he lay still,
+making out by degrees that a large body of horsemen had ridden up, and
+from the talking that went on there seemed to be no doubt that earlier
+in the night this party must have gone out upon a reconnaissance while
+the Sheikh's party slept, and that this was their return.
+
+Certainly there was no danger, for by degrees the various sounds died
+out, and all was still.
+
+Frank's eyes closed once more, and his next awakening was at broad day,
+to find that a fire was burning and that Sam and his help from the
+camel-drivers were busy preparing for the morning meal, while the Sheikh
+and his men were as busy seeing to the camels, after being in doubt as
+to whether they would be there.
+
+But there had been no interference with anything belonging to the
+Hakim's party, and the old man was evidently fairly contented in mind as
+he made his report about what he knew of the night's proceedings.
+
+His first and most important announcement was that the Baggara chiefs
+force had been nearly doubled during the night, it seeming probable that
+the water-holes had been made the place of meeting for a divided force.
+The question that troubled the party now was whether the newcomers would
+prove well disposed; but they were not long left in doubt, for quite
+early in the morning the Baggara chief made his appearance for his wound
+to be dressed, and smiled with satisfaction at the change in its state.
+
+"Tell the Hakim," he said, "that he is great, and that he can stay here
+to rest his camels till to-morrow, and then he shall come with us."
+
+This was as he was about to leave the Hakim's presence, with his injured
+arm resting comfortably in its sling, and he turned away at once.
+
+"_Nolens volens_, Frank," said the professor; "but so far nothing could
+be better for us.  Look here, another present."
+
+For three men were approaching with a kid, dates, and bananas, and in
+addition one of them bore a handsome large rug, evidently intended for
+the Hakim's use.
+
+The men approached with the same deference that they had displayed on
+the previous day, and then departed; but before they were half over the
+space which divided the two camps, a party of five men were seen
+approaching, one of whom was mounted upon a cream-coloured horse, two
+others supporting him as he swayed to and fro, apparently quite unable
+to retain his seat.
+
+It was the _avant-garde_ of the patients the Hakim was to treat that
+day, and coming as it did on the Baggara chiefs announcement that they
+were to accompany him the next morning, quite settled what, for at all
+events the present, was to be their position in connection with the
+force.
+
+"You are to be surgeon in chief to the tribe, Robert," said the
+professor merrily, "so you had better make the best of it."
+
+The doctor did not pause to reply, but gravely prepared to receive the
+fresh patient, shaking his head solemnly at Frank the while.
+
+"It looks bad," he said.  "The poor fellow seems to be beyond help."
+
+The Baggara appeared to be a finely built, manly young fellow as he was
+allowed to subside into his followers' arms, and then borne to where the
+Hakim waited.  There they laid him upon a rug which Frank dragged ready
+for his reception, to leave their burden lying flat upon his back, while
+the bearers drew back, but the horse advanced, to lower its soft muzzle
+and sniff at its rider's face, before raising its head and uttering a
+shrill neigh.
+
+The four men stood looking at the Hakim, as much as to say, "He is dead,
+but you must bring him to life."
+
+The doctor's broad white brow was as a rule wonderfully free from lines,
+but as Frank glanced at him it was to see them gather now as straight
+and regular almost as if they had been ruled, from his eyebrows high up
+to where the hair had been shorn away.
+
+But no time was wasted, and no search was needed.  The young chief--for
+such he seemed to be--had received a terrible thrust from a spear just
+below the collar-bone, and to all appearance he had bled to death.
+
+But as the doctor busily did what was necessary to the frightful wound,
+a slight quivering about the eyelids announced that life still lingered,
+and as the busy hands checked all further effusion and administered a
+restorative, the failing spirit's flight was for the time being stayed,
+though whether this would be permanent was more than the Hakim dared to
+say.
+
+"He must have been bleeding all the night," the doctor said, "and
+jolting about on a horse.  The man's constitution is wonderful, or he
+would have died long before now."
+
+"Can you save him?" asked the professor.
+
+"I fear not, but I'll do all I can.  Ask the men how this happened,
+Ibrahim."
+
+The information was soon obtained.
+
+"It was in a skirmish, Hakim, a day's journey from here.  The men who
+joined us last night came in contact with a body of mounted men armed
+with spears, and from their description they seem to have been English
+troops.  Many of the Baggara were killed, others wounded, and this man,
+their leader, was as you see.  He will die, Excellency, will he not?"
+
+"It all depends on the way in which he is treated," replied the doctor.
+"He is in a dying state, but no dangerous part is touched.  I may save
+his life."
+
+"It would be a miracle, Excellency," said the Sheikh slowly.  "Look:
+there is a dark cloud coming over his face."
+
+"No," said the doctor gravely; "that is because the spirit in him is so
+low.  He is falling into a sleep that is almost death, but he still
+lives.  Tell these men that he is not to be moved, and that their chief
+must send a tent here to place over him.  Let two of your men come now
+to spread a cloth above him to keep off the sun until the tent is set
+up."
+
+The message was given, and the men hurried away to rejoin their people,
+while in a very few minutes the Baggara chief and his companion
+appeared, walking hurriedly, and made their way to the side of the
+wounded man, to look at him anxiously and as if his condition was a
+great trouble to them, the elder going down on one knee to lay a hand
+upon the sufferer's brow.
+
+The next minute he was up again, and the two chiefs were chatting
+hurriedly together, before the elder turned to Ibrahim and spoke
+earnestly, his voice sounding hoarse and changed.
+
+"O Hakim," said the Sheikh, "he says that this is his son, whom he
+loves, and it will be like robbing him of his own life if the boy dies.
+He says that you must not let him sink.  Sooner let all the wounded men
+who are coming to you die than this one.  You must make him live, and
+all that the chief has is thine."
+
+"How can I make the man live?" said the Hakim sternly, and frowning at
+the chief as he spoke to the interpreter.  "Has not all his life-blood
+been spilled upon the sand as they brought him here?  Tell him at once
+that I am not a prophet, only a simple surgeon; that I have done all
+that is possible, and that the rest is with God."
+
+The Sheikh reverently translated the Hakim's words to the Baggara chief,
+and those who heard him fully expected to hear some angry outburst; but
+the chief bent humbly before the Hakim and touched his hand.
+
+In a short time, under the Baggara chief's supervision, a tent was set
+up over the wounded man, and by then two large groups of patients were
+waiting patiently for the Hakim's ministrations--those whom he had
+tended on the previous day, and about a dozen wounded men who had come
+in during the night.
+
+It was a new class of practice for the London practitioner, however
+familiar it might have been to the surgeon of a regiment on active
+service; but wounds are wounds, whether received in the everyday life of
+a mechanic who has injured himself with his tools or been crushed by
+machinery, or caused by shot, sword, and spear.  So the Hakim toiled
+away hour after hour till his last patient had left the space in front
+of his tent and he had leisure to re-examine the chief's son, the father
+looking anxiously on in spite of an assumed sternness, and waiting till
+the keen-eyed surgeon rose from one knee.
+
+"Tell him," said the Hakim gravely, "that it will be days before the
+young chief can be moved."
+
+The words were interpreted, and the chief seemed to forget his own
+injury as he said in an angry tone that the little force must start at
+daybreak the next morning.
+
+"Then the young man will die," said the Hakim coldly.
+
+Ibrahim again interpreted, and the chief suggested that a camel litter
+should be prepared.
+
+But the Hakim shook his head.
+
+"Can't you give way?" said the professor softly.  "A fairly easy couch
+could be made."
+
+"The man will certainly die if he is moved to-morrow," replied Morris
+sternly, "and if I lose a patient now a great deal of my prestige goes
+with him."
+
+"Yes, I know," said the professor; "but we are making an enemy instead
+of a friend; this man is not in the habit of having his will crossed."
+
+"We shall lose his friendship all the same," said the doctor, "if his
+son dies in my hands.  I can save his life if he is left to me."
+
+"Dare you say that for certain?"
+
+The doctor was silent for a few minutes, during which he bent over his
+patient again, took his temperature, and examined the pupils of his
+eyes, and at last rose up and stepped from beneath the shade of the
+rough little tent.
+
+"Yes," he said; "I can say, I think for certain, that I will save his
+life if he is left to me."
+
+"What does the wise Hakim say?" asked the Baggara of Ibrahim; and the
+question was interpreted to the doctor.
+
+"Tell him, No!  That his son must not stir if he is to live.  If he is
+left for say a week all may be well."
+
+There was no outburst of anger upon the interpretation of these words,
+the Baggara hearing them to the end and then walking away, frowning and
+stern, without once looking back.
+
+About an hour later some half-dozen men came up leading a couple of
+camels laden with a larger tent and other gear.  This was set up a short
+distance from the small one in which the young chief lay, and soon after
+it was done the chief rode up once more to see his son, looking anxious
+and careworn upon seeing the young man lying apparently unchanged.
+
+The Baggara went away without a word to the Hakim, but signed to the
+Sheikh to follow him.
+
+Meanwhile the rest of the sufferers came or were carried to take their
+turn before their surgeon, who was busy with his two aides, easing
+bandages, and where necessary redressing the wounds; while to the
+professor's surprise two of them, instead of being carried or supported
+away by their comrades were helped into the large tent.
+
+In all seven were placed there, and just as the long line of sufferers
+had been gone through, the Sheikh returned and said that the chief's
+orders were that the worst sufferers were to stay at the tent so as to
+be under the Hakim's eye.
+
+The doctor's was evidently to be no sinecure appointment, but he took it
+quite complacently, giving a few orders for the comfort of his staying
+patients, and without further incident the night fell, when a small
+hand-lamp was placed in the little tent, and the doctor announced that
+he was going to watch beside the young chief for the night.
+
+Accordingly a rug was placed for him, as well as such requisites as
+might be needed for his patient, and saying good-night, and refusing all
+offers to share his vigil, the doctor glanced inside the larger tent to
+see that all was going on right there, and then stood in the open for a
+few minutes to breathe the cool night air and listen to the low murmur
+going on in the camp, before entering the smaller tent and starting
+slightly.
+
+"You here, Frank?" he said quickly.
+
+"Yes, I am going to share your watch."
+
+"There is no need, my dear boy," said the doctor warmly.  "Go and get a
+good night's rest.  You must be tired."
+
+"I have not done half the work you have," was the reply, and after a
+little further argument the doctor gave way, and the watch was
+commenced, first one and then the other taking the lamp to bend over the
+insensible man, and make sure that he was breathing still.
+
+It was about an hour after midnight that Frank's turn had come, and as
+he had done some three times before, he took the lamp from where it
+stood, shaded from the sufferer's eyes, and went behind him, to kneel
+down and watch for the feeble pulsation, breathing deeply himself with
+satisfaction as he found that the respiration still went on, when as he
+rose, lamp in hand he nearly let it fall on finding himself face to face
+with a tall figure in white robes, who looked at him sternly, took the
+lamp from his hand, and bent over in turn.
+
+Frank neither spoke nor moved, but drew back a little, watching the face
+of the Baggara chief as the light struck full upon the swarthy, aquiline
+features for a few minutes, before the visitor rose and handed back the
+lamp, gazing full in the young man's eyes.  Then, thrusting his hand
+into his waist scarf, he freed the sheath of a handsome dagger from the
+folds, and without a word handed it to Frank, motioning him to place it
+in his own belt, after which he went silently out of the tent, vanishing
+like a shadow.
+
+Frank stood motionless for a few minutes before setting down the lamp,
+and he was about to return to his place when the doctor's voice said
+softly--
+
+"Well, Frank, how is he?"
+
+"Just the same," replied Frank.  "You heard the chief come in, of
+course?"
+
+"The Baggara?  No; surely he has not been again?"
+
+"Yes; looked at his son, and went away a few minutes ago.  Were you
+asleep?"
+
+"No, I think not--I am sure not," said the doctor.  "I turned my face
+away from the light when I lay down; but I heard you rise, and saw the
+movement of the lamp over the tent side when you took it up, and again
+when you set it down.  Well, I am not sorry that he has been.  It shows
+that even such a savage chief as this--one who lives by rapine and
+violence--has his natural feelings hidden somewhere in his heart."
+
+The pair were silent for some little time, and then the doctor rose to
+look at his patient in turn.
+
+"These are the anxious hours, Frank," he said, "before daylight comes.
+Much depends on our getting well through the next two.  If the poor
+fellow is alive at sunrise I shall feel quite satisfied that he will
+recover; but if he does it will be by a very narrow way."
+
+The pair sat then and listened and watched, with the patient still
+breathing slowly and softly, seeming very calm at last when the first
+faint dawn appeared; and soon after the doorway was shaded by the
+Sheikh.
+
+"How is he, Excellencies?" he said in a whisper.
+
+"He will live, Ibrahim," replied the doctor.  "Come and watch now while
+we go to my tent and snatch a few hours' rest."
+
+"I have some coffee ready for you, Excellency," whispered the old man.
+"You will take that first?"
+
+"Yes, it will be very welcome," said the doctor.
+
+"I suppose you heard them go?" said the Sheikh, as they stepped out into
+the soft grey light.  "Go?  Heard whom go?" said Frank quickly.
+
+"The Baggara," replied the Sheikh.  "About two hours ago."
+
+"No!" said the doctor.  "Not a sound."
+
+"They have all gone, Excellency, excepting the wounded in the next tent
+and twelve mounted men who are stationed round to act, I suppose, as a
+guard."
+
+"But they will come back?"
+
+"I cannot say, Excellency," replied the old man; "I only know that they
+have gone."
+
+"`And fold their tents like the Arabs,'" said Frank softly to himself,
+"`and as silently steal away.'"
+
+
+
+CHAPTER TWENTY.
+
+PRISONERS INDEED.
+
+Before the sun rose Frank's rescue party fully realised their position--
+that they were prisoners, guarded by about twenty of the Baggara chief's
+followers, and in charge of a temporary hospital, with the leader's son
+as the principal patient.
+
+"We must look our trouble, if trouble it is, straight in the face,
+Frank, my lad," said the professor, "and hope all will turn out for the
+best."
+
+"Yes," replied Frank, with a sigh; "but of course we cannot stir from
+here, and the time is going so fast."
+
+"But we reckoned upon meeting with obstacles, and this one may prove to
+be a help in the end."
+
+"I hope so," said the young man despondently, his manner seeming to
+belie his words.  "But what about the future--I mean when these men need
+no more attention?"
+
+"My idea of the future is that the chief has gone with his men upon some
+raid already arranged, and that we shall have them back before long."
+
+"Yes," said Frank, "he is sure to return on account of his son.  Then we
+must wait."
+
+"Yes, and as patiently as we can, my lad."
+
+"And have as good an account to give the father as we can on his
+return," said the doctor, who had been listening in silence.  "It is
+very trying, Frank, to be checked like this, and so soon; but one thing
+is certain, the Baggara chief means to keep us to attend to his wounded,
+and this being a warlike excursion it will sooner or later come to an
+end, and we shall be taken pretty swiftly in the direction we want to
+go."
+
+"I'll try to think as you do," said Frank sadly, "and murmur as little
+as I can."
+
+"Fortunately we shall have very little time for brooding over our
+troubles," said the doctor, "for I can see nothing but hard work for
+days to come."
+
+"Yes," said the professor grimly; "you are getting far more professional
+duty, though, than we bargained for."
+
+As the day wore on there was little change visible in the young chief,
+who seemed to be alive, and that was all; but the Hakim was satisfied,
+and the other patients had certainly improved.
+
+The Sheikh reported having talked to the head of their guard, but he was
+far from communicative.  He would not say anything about his chief's
+proceedings, nor even allow that he would return, but told the Arab
+sternly that no one must stir from the little camp; at the same time,
+though, he showed Ibrahim that he was left with a supply of provisions
+for many days to come, and that he was ready to furnish the Hakim's
+party with meat and corn.
+
+"Then we must wait, Ibrahim," said Frank wearily.
+
+"Yes, Excellency," replied the old man, "and have patience.  These
+people have it in their power to turn us back, or make slaves and
+prisoners of us; while if we resist--well, Excellency, I need not tell
+you what would come.  They are masters, and if a servant does not do
+their bidding, the sand drinks up his blood, and he is no more.  They
+look upon us now, though, as their friends, and sooner or later the
+Baggara chief will return, if he does not encounter some of the English
+troops and have his people scattered."
+
+"Which is hardly likely yet," said the professor decisively.
+
+"No, Excellency, not yet; and I feel sure that after he has swept the
+country round of everything worth taking he will retreat south."
+
+"Where?" said Frank quickly.
+
+"There are but two places at all likely, Excellency," replied the old
+man; "Omdurman and Khartoum, one of which will be the headquarters of
+the new Mahdi's force, and that is where you wish to be."
+
+As had been said, there was too much to do for the English party to have
+much time for brooding.  The Hakim was deeply interested in his
+patients, forgetting everything in the brave fight he made to save every
+life; and Frank strove manfully to hide the heart-sickness and despair
+which attacked him as he worked away over what soon settled down into
+field hospital work, being conscious all the while that he and his
+friends were carefully watched, but not in a troublesome way, for the
+Baggara guard had formed a little camp of their own and kept rigorously
+to themselves, their duty being to mount guard night and day and see
+that the prisoners and patients were supplied with all that was needed.
+
+And so the time glided by, with Frank daily growing more careworn and
+silent.  He did not even revert to the object of their journey unless it
+was mentioned by his companions, but worked away, helping the doctor,
+and having the satisfaction of seeing first one poor helpless wreck
+become convalescent and then another.  For there was no shirking or
+making the worst of wounds or sickness, the men being only too ready to
+leave the hospital tent with its occupants, so as to join the guard in
+their little camp.
+
+Consequently as the days sped quickly by the number of patients rapidly
+decreased, while the principal sufferer, after lying as if between life
+and death for a week, began to mend, his terrible wound healing rapidly,
+and signs of returning strength gradually appearing.
+
+At first he lay quiet and sullen, submitting to all that was done for
+him, watching the Hakim with what appeared to be a suspicious dread, for
+his mind did not seem to grasp the possibility of this Frankish
+physician wishing to save his life.  He scowled, too, at the professor,
+and at first gave the dumb, black slave Frank fierce looks whenever in
+his ministrations he approached and touched him.  But during the course
+of the second week, as his strength began to return, he appeared more
+grateful, and once or twice smiled and nodded after being lifted or fed,
+or having his position changed.
+
+One day when the Sheikh came to the tent the patient began to speak, and
+asked him questions about the Hakim--why he was there, and what payment
+he would require for all he had done; and looked surprised when told
+that the learned Frankish physician did everything for the sake of doing
+good.
+
+It was a problem that lasted him till the next day, when he signed for
+something, and the professor found that they could make one another
+comprehend after a fashion, enough for the Englishman to grasp that the
+wounded man wanted Ibrahim, who was summoned.
+
+It was for a mere trifle.  He wanted to question him about Frank--how he
+came to be the Hakim's slave, and why he could not speak, the old Arab
+making up the best explanation he could over the first, and referring to
+the professor for an explanation as to the latter, the young chief being
+evidently under the impression, and bluntly expressing the belief, that
+the Hakim had cut out the young slave's tongue so that he should not
+reveal any of the secrets of the magic by whose means he performed his
+cures.
+
+There being visible proof afforded, to Frank's disgust, that the Hakim
+had not treated his slave in this barbarous way, the young chief felt
+certain that the silence was the result of some magic spell, and he
+began to display a certain amount of pity for the young man, and lay and
+watched him curiously.
+
+From that day Frank found that he was an object of interest to the young
+chief, who noted every movement with a sort of pitying contempt, while
+at the same time, in spite of the result of the Hakim's ministrations,
+he displayed an unconcealed dislike for him that was manifested in
+morose looks and more than one angry scowl.
+
+This was talked over when the friends were alone, and the doctor smiled.
+
+"It does not matter," he said.  "I shall not be jealous, Frank.  It is
+all plain enough to read.  The poor fellow is weak as a child mentally
+as well as bodily, and I expect that as soon as he gets better he will
+be offering you your freedom from the cruel slavery to which you have
+been reduced."
+
+"Yes, that's it," said the professor, laughing; "but don't you listen to
+the voice of the charmer, my boy.  There is an old proverb about jumping
+out of the frying-pan into the fire."
+
+"It may all work for good," said the doctor, "and there is no harm in
+making a friend; but it is of no use to try and foresee what will
+happen.  A sick man's fancies are very evanescent.  Go on as you have
+done all through.  One thing is very evident: he is mending fast, and
+can be moved when his father returns."
+
+"If he ever does," said the professor drily.  "The lives of these
+fighting men are rather precarious, and if we never see him again I
+shall not be surprised."
+
+Another week glided by, and the large tent was taken down by the Baggara
+guard and set up again in their own camp, for the last of the Hakim's
+patients had expressed a wish to join his fellows, though far from being
+in a condition to leave, so that the young chief was the only sufferer
+left, while he was now sufficiently recovered to watch what went on
+around.  But for the most part his eyes were fixed upon the desert, his
+gaze bespeaking the expectation of his father's return, though he never
+suggested it in his brief conversations with the Sheikh--brief from
+their difficulty, the old Arab confessing his inability to understand
+much that was said.
+
+But if the young chief was watching in that expectation he fixed his
+eyes upon the distant horizon in vain.  The clouds appeared every
+morning, to hang for hours in the east along the course of the far-off
+river, and then die away in the glowing sunshine, while to north and
+south and west there was the shimmering haze of heat playing above the
+sand, till Frank began to be in despair.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER TWENTY ONE.
+
+FOR A FRESH START.
+
+One evening after the young chief had lain watching the desert in vain
+he signed for the Sheikh to come to him, and in a stronger voice bade
+him fetch the leader of the men left on guard.
+
+The man came, and a conversation ensued, the result of which was that
+the Baggara went away to join his companions, with whom a long
+consultation was held, followed by certain unmistakable movements which
+brought the Sheikh to his friends.
+
+"They are going to march," he said.  "Their tents are being struck, and
+everyone is preparing.  I saw four men seeing to the water-skins; others
+are packing, and soon after midnight they will leave."
+
+"And what about the young chief?  He is not fit to go, eh, doctor?"
+
+"Unless he is carried," was the reply.
+
+The Sheikh smiled.
+
+"They are preparing a camel for him so that he can share it with one of
+the wounded men--a litter such as they use for the women.  They can
+almost lie, one on either side, Excellencies.  I expect that they will
+say nothing, but that we shall wake in the morning and find that we are
+alone."
+
+The Sheikh had hardly spoken when the party saw the head of the Baggara
+guard approaching.
+
+As the man came within reach he signed to the Sheikh to join him, and
+his words were very few before he turned upon his heel and strode away.
+
+"What does this mean, Ibrahim?" said Frank.  "Did he tell you that they
+are going?"
+
+"Our tents are to be struck, Excellency, and everything loaded upon our
+camels before daylight."
+
+"Ah!" said Frank eagerly; "to march to the south?"
+
+"Yes, Excellency.  His orders from the chief were that if he did not
+return in the number of days now passed we were to be taken south."
+
+"Whereto?"
+
+"Omdurman, Excellency.  He has been waiting for the young chiefs
+speaking to say that he was strong enough to go.  The time was past the
+day before yesterday.  The young man told him an hour ago that he could
+bear it now."
+
+"Then the suspense is over!" cried Frank eagerly.
+
+"Mind, Excellency!" said the Sheikh, laying his hand upon the young
+man's arm; "the young man is trying to look round this way.  He must not
+see your lips moving, nor hear you speak."
+
+It was a slip on Frank's part, but the young chief did not seem to have
+noticed anything, and mentally resolving to be more careful the speaker
+drew back a little as if waiting for orders.
+
+"Yes," said the professor; "the suspense is over, and we are once more
+about to start.  This time it will be direct to our goal."
+
+"But how is it the Baggara chief has not returned, Ibrahim?" said the
+doctor gravely.
+
+"Who can say, Excellency?" replied the old Sheikh, with a shrug of the
+shoulders.  "He took his young men on what you English people call a
+raid--to kill and plunder, and perhaps, as his son did, he has met with
+a stronger force.  Instead of sweeping away he has perhaps been with his
+people swept from the face of the earth.  He may have been only driven
+aside from his path, but there must have been some serious encounter, or
+he would have returned, for he showed us that he loved his son."
+
+"Going?" said the professor, for the Sheikh drew back.
+
+"Yes, Excellency; I must see that our preparations are made.  My young
+men must be ready.  You will give orders for your baggage to be packed,
+and before the time for starting my people shall bring up the camels and
+load them.  The tent can stand till an hour before the time, and you
+will all doubtless lie down and rest."
+
+"No," said the professor; "it would be driving things too close.  Send
+your young men to strike the tent, and we will have everything ready for
+the camels.  We should none of us sleep, and if we have any time to
+spare it will be pleasant enough to lie down on the sand.  One minute:
+have you any idea which way we shall go?"
+
+"I do not quite know," said the old Arab.  "I asked the men, but they
+shook their heads.  It will not be by the regular caravan track."
+
+"How do you know that?" asked the doctor.
+
+"Because, Excellency, there is water nearly as good as this at the end
+of the day's journey."
+
+"Well?  What of that?"
+
+"These men must know the tracks as well as I do, Excellencies--perhaps
+better.  If they were going by the regular road they would know that we
+should reach the wells."
+
+"I see," said the professor, nodding his head; "and they are filling
+water-skins?"
+
+"Yes, Excellency, and I am told to do the same."
+
+"Then we are going to strike right out into the desert, of course."
+
+"Yes, Excellency, to take the shortest ways; and it looks like flight."
+
+That evening the Hakim visited his one patient, and found him making
+excellent progress; but the young chief made no attempt to communicate
+the change that was to take place, contenting himself with bowing his
+head slowly by way of thanks, and then closing his eyes and turning away
+his head.  He made signs to Frank, though, soon after, to bring him
+water, and the latter noted at once that the young man's eyes looked
+pained and anxious, and that his brow was a good deal lined.  And it was
+plain enough to read the meaning of the anxious glances northward which
+he kept on giving, as if hoping against hope that the delay was not
+serious.
+
+But there was not a sign upon the distant horizon, though the air was
+cool and clear, so that the sky-line where the sandy sea joined the air
+was perfectly distinct, till night closed in over a busy scene, for the
+men of both parties were working hard packing and preparing.  The two
+rows of camels crouched munching away contentedly after being watered,
+and as their loads were finished each was placed near the camel which
+was to be its bearer, and glanced at by the animals as if they quite
+understood.
+
+This took the attention of Sam, who seized the instant when he was
+making the final arrangement with Frank over the Hakim's leather cases,
+once more carefully packed, to whisper a few remarks.
+
+"They seem rum things, don't they, sir?  Just look at that one how he
+keeps turning and rolling his eyes at these two long portmanteaus!
+Don't you tell me that they don't understand, because I feel sure that
+they do.  That big, strong fellow's saying as plainly as he can, `For
+two pins I'd bolt off into the desert and strike against that load, only
+it would be no good; they'd fetch me back; and I don't like leaving my
+mates.'"
+
+"Well, there is a peculiarly intelligent look about the beast certainly,
+Sam," said Frank, smiling.
+
+"'Telligent, sir?  I should think there is!  Look how he keeps on
+licking his lips and leering at us now and then.  Beautiful and patient,
+too.  Why, he's quite smiling at us, and as soon as they begin to hang
+his load upon his beautiful humpy back he'll begin moaning and groaning
+and sighing as if there never was such an ill-used animal before.  Oh,
+they're queer beasts, and no mistake.  I'd like to drive that fellow;
+that's what I should like to do.  He'd taste the whip more than once."
+
+"Why?" asked Frank, for Sam stopped short and looked at him as much as
+to say, "Ask me."
+
+"Because, as the people say, I've got my knife into him, and I want to
+pay him."
+
+"Well, go on," said Frank.  "I am waiting to hear your reasons."
+
+"Because he's an ugly, supercilious, contemptuous, sneering, ill-behaved
+brute, sir.  Last time I went near him he called me names--a dog of a
+white nigger, or something of that kind.  I can't say exactly what."
+
+"Absurd!"
+
+"Oh, but he did, sir, in his language, which of course I could not
+understand; but he did something insulting which I could.  For there was
+no doubt about that--he spat at me, sir--regularly spat at me, and then
+snarled as much as to say, `Take that!  You come within reach, and I'll
+bite you!'"
+
+"They're not pleasant creatures," said Frank quietly, glancing round.
+
+"No, sir, they're not, indeed; and that isn't the worst of it."
+
+"Then what is?"
+
+"Why, this, sir: instead of going comfortably to one's night's rest,
+I've got to mount one of the ugly, sneering brutes, and he'll play at
+see-saw with me and make me as miserable as he can, turning my poor back
+into a sort of hinge.  Ugh!  I haven't forgotten my last dose."
+
+"Don't talk to me any more," said Frank, in a low tone of voice; "here
+are some of the other men coming."
+
+"To take down the patients' tent, I suppose, sir."
+
+Frank made no reply, but Sam was right, for they quickly and quietly
+lowered and folded the young chiefs tent, leaving him only a rug to lie
+upon, after placing the tent ready to be fetched by one of their camels.
+
+Seeing this, Frank went to where the weak, helpless man lay exposed to
+the cool night air and turned one side of the rich rug gently over him,
+receiving for thanks a gentle tap or two upon the arm.
+
+"I was going across to do that, Frank," said the doctor, as the young
+man returned to his own party.  "It is not good for him to be exposed
+like this, but these people are so accustomed to the desert life that
+they bear with impunity what would kill an ordinary Englishman."
+
+"How much longer have we to wait, Ibrahim?" asked the professor.
+
+"We shall begin loading in less than an hour, Excellency," replied the
+Sheikh, "so as to have plenty of time."
+
+"Is everything packed?"
+
+"Yes, Excellency."
+
+"Nothing forgotten?"
+
+"I have been over the baggage twice, Excellency, and nothing has been
+left; the camels are all in beautiful condition, and there is an ample
+supply of water, for I have had four extra skins filled.  We may want
+it, for the journey to-morrow will be over the hot, fine sand.  I
+daresay, though, we shall halt for a few hours in the middle of the
+day."
+
+Soon after there was the busy sound of loading going on, the soft
+silence of the night being broken by the querulous moaning and
+complaining of the camels as burden after burden was balanced across
+their backs, the uncanny noise sounding weird and strange, the weirdness
+applying, too, to the dimly seen, long-necked creatures, which rapidly
+grew into shapeless monsters writhing their long necks and snaky heads
+as seen in the darkness, till they looked like nothing so much as the
+strange fancies indistinctly seen in some feverish dream.
+
+So well had the preparations been made that an hour amply sufficed for
+the loading up, and at the end of that time the two troops of camels
+were standing, each with its own drivers, a short distance apart, and
+nothing remained but for those who rode to mount and the order to be
+given for the start.
+
+It was just then that a tall, dark object, the one for which the doctor
+had been anxiously looking, loomed up from the Baggara camp and stalked
+silently up to where the Baggara chiefs son lay waiting upon his rug.
+
+As it reached his side, attended by two men, the great camel was
+stopped, and its load was more plainly to be seen, shaping itself into a
+couple of rudely made, elongated panniers, out of one of which, while it
+was held, a man leapt lightly out, the other being occupied by one of
+the weakest of the wounded.
+
+The doctor and Frank then superintended the lifting in of the chiefs
+son, who bore the movement without a sigh, and the great camel, after
+the rug had been laid across like a form of housing, was led back to its
+fellows, some twenty yards away.
+
+Then from out of the darkness an order rang out, and the waiting camels
+were mounted, after which there was the snorting of horses, and half a
+dozen graceful creatures trotted by to take the lead as advance guard,
+the troop waiting till they were a little distance ahead.  At last the
+shadowy looking line of camels, horses, and men were awaiting the order
+to start, for some reason unaccountably delayed, when suddenly the
+Sheikh laid his hand upon Frank's arm.
+
+"Hark!" he whispered excitedly.  "Listen!  Do you not hear?"
+
+Frank shook his head.
+
+"It is quite plain," continued the Sheikh.  "Horses--the trampling of
+many men.  Keep close together, Excellencies, while I warn my people."
+
+"Warn them of what?" said the doctor calmly.
+
+"Danger, Excellency.  These may be friends coming, but it may mean an
+attack or the coming of strangers.  If it is either of the latter I
+shall try to lead you all into safety.  So at a word follow me at once
+straight away into the desert.  We may be able to escape."
+
+The Sheikh's camel glided silently away into the darkness, and the party
+sat straining their sense of hearing to the utmost, making out plainly
+enough now the dull sound of trampling hoofs, the jingling of trappings,
+and every now and then an angry snort or squeal as some ill-tempered
+beast resented the too near approach of one of its own kind.
+
+Then all at once, as the sounds came nearer, there was heard plainly
+enough the muttering, whining cry of a camel, followed by more and more
+proofs then that the coming party was one of greater strength than it
+had seemed to be at first.
+
+Just then the Sheikh came back out of the darkness, to halt his camel
+close up by the professor's.
+
+"It is not English cavalry, Excellencies," he said, "but a native force.
+I think it must be the Baggara chief and his men returned."
+
+At that moment a peculiar cry rang out from a couple of hundred yards or
+so away--a weird, strange whoop that might have come from some night
+bird sweeping through the darkness overhead.
+
+But it was human, and answered directly by the Baggara train close at
+hand, and directly after there was a loud shout, and a crowd of horsemen
+galloped up out of the mysterious-looking gloom, to mingle with the
+party about to start on their desert ride.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER TWENTY TWO.
+
+NEARING THE GOAL.
+
+It was more from hearing than seeing that Frank Frere gathered the fact
+that the Baggara chief had returned, for after a short pause the camel
+train was once more in motion, and they were ordered to keep steadily in
+line in the advance to the desert in the opposite direction to that by
+which the newcomers had arrived.
+
+At first the two parties formed the train alone, for the fresh arrivals
+had halted to water their horses and camels, quite an hour passing
+before the sound of approaching horsemen announced that the whole force
+was in motion, overtaking them at a sharp canter, but only to subside
+directly into the regular, slow camel pace, which was kept on hour after
+hour till the dawn, when, looking back, Frank made out that the train
+extended for nearly half a mile to the rear, being made up of a long
+line of camels, followed by a troop of many horsemen.
+
+It was nearly all surmise, but judging from the number of camels, which
+were certainly double those that the Baggara had before during their
+stay by the fountains, they had been engaged in some successful foray,
+for as the light grew stronger the baggage animals seemed to be very
+heavily laden.
+
+This idea naturally suggested that the wild horsemen had been engaged in
+some desperate encounter, and half laughingly the professor bantered his
+friends about their prospects.
+
+"It means a revival of professional practice for you," he said, "and
+that looks prosperous.  You only lost your last patient a few hours
+ago--that is, if you have lost him--and now a score or two will come
+tumbling in."
+
+"Very well," said the doctor coolly; "it shows that they approve of my
+treatment.  I suppose we shall know at the first halt."
+
+This was many hours in coming, for a long, monotonous march was made
+right away to the south-west, with the pile of rocks they had left
+gradually sinking till quite out of sight, and then, with the sun
+growing hotter and hotter, there was nothing visible on any side but the
+long, level stretch of sand.
+
+The halt was not made till near midday, when the heat had become
+unbearable, and horses and camels were growing sluggish, and showed
+plenty of indications of the need of whip and spur.
+
+Then, apparently without orders, the little knot of horsemen, led by the
+Baggara who had had charge of the prisoners, drew up short and faced
+round, when taking them as the extreme limit the rest of the train
+formed themselves up into a well ordered group as they came on, till,
+with the Sheikh's party and their guards as a kind of centre, and the
+camels with their loads behind, the horsemen closed them in as if for
+strategic reasons, and for the next half hour there was a busy scene,
+the camels being relieved of their loads as if the stay were to be of
+some hours' length.
+
+This was evidently intended, for fires were lit and food was prepared,
+many of the horsemen after picketing their horses settling down at once
+to coffee and pipes.
+
+It was while Frank and his friends were partaking of an _al fresco_
+lunch, hastily prepared by Sam, that they had their first intimation of
+the Baggara chief being with the horsemen, for he cantered up to their
+temporary camp in company with his fierce-looking companion, leaped from
+his horse, and walked up to the Hakim at once, to give him a smile of
+recognition and hold out his left arm, which he tapped vigorously as if
+saying: "Look!  Quite well again."  Then turning round to the Sheikh he
+signed to him to approach, and said a few words hastily, before nodding
+to the Hakim again, returning to his horse, mounting, and cantering
+away.
+
+"Well, Ibrahim," said the professor; "what does it mean?"
+
+"That the chief's arm will soon be well; that the young chief his son
+will soon be well; and that the great Hakim and his slaves are to have
+no fear, for the Baggara are their friends."
+
+"Yes, and mean to keep the Hakim and his slaves as prisoners as long as
+there are any cripples to cure," said the professor merrily.
+
+"I suppose that is what it means," said the doctor quietly.
+
+"That's it, sure enough," said the professor; "and we shall reach
+Khartoum, Frank, in half the time we should have managed it in if we had
+been left to ourselves."
+
+Frank shook his head sadly.
+
+"What! you doubt?" cried the professor.  "Here, Ibrahim, what do you say
+to that?"
+
+"His Excellency is quite right," replied the Sheikh.  "We should have
+had to wander here and there, and have met with many hindrances by
+having to stay to perform cures of the sick people.  Yes, it would have
+been a journey of many weary months."
+
+"It will take much time now," said the professor, "but it looks as if we
+were really bound due south."
+
+"I suppose there is a party of wounded men on the way?" said the doctor.
+
+"Yes, they follow the chief's visits," said the professor.  "My word!
+learned one, your post is going to be no sinecure.  Hah! here comes the
+first instalment."
+
+For a roughly contrived litter was seen approaching, and directly after
+the chief's son was borne up to them by four of his followers and set
+down in front of the doctor, who attended to his patient, finding him no
+worse for his journey.
+
+He was carried away again as soon as the Hakim had seen that his wound
+was healing well, and the arrival of the newly injured was expected; but
+none appeared, for the simple reason that the fresh tale of wounded was
+only imaginary, the Baggara chief, as was afterwards learned, having
+been successful in obtaining a large amount of plunder and many camels
+in his first raid after leaving the prisoners at the wells.  These he
+had despatched under a small escort while he made for another village
+which had been marked down.  Here, however, he met with a severe
+reverse, his men having to gallop for their lives, leaving their dead
+and wounded behind.
+
+Hence it was, then, that the Hakim's burden became light for the rest of
+the march, which was continued day after day, week after week, till so
+slow was the progress that months had passed and the despair in Frank's
+soul grew deeper.
+
+The party were well treated, and won the respect of the whole force from
+the many kindly acts they were able to perform.  For sickness was more
+than once a deadly foe which had to be fought, while help was often
+required after occasional raids made during the journey, in which the
+desperate dwellers in village or camp fought hard and mostly in vain for
+their lives and property, as well as to save those whom they held dear
+from being carried off as slaves.
+
+"It is horrible!"  Frank used to say.  "These tribes are like a
+pestilence passing through the land.  The atrocities of which they are
+guilty are a hundred times worse than I could have believed.  There can
+never be rest for the unfortunate inhabitants till they are swept away."
+
+"Never," said the professor gravely.  "The land will soon be one wide
+desolation, for the smiling oases where irrigation could do its part
+will soon be gone back to a waste of sand."
+
+"And by the irony of fate," continued Frank bitterly, "here are we--so
+many English people, whose hearts bleed for the horrors we are forced to
+see--doing our best afterwards to restore to health and strength the
+wretches who have robbed and murdered in every peaceful village they
+have passed."
+
+He looked, and spoke, at the Hakim, as these utterances passed his lips,
+and his brother's old school-fellow shook his head at him reproachfully.
+
+"Don't blame me, Frank, my lad," he said.  "I often think as you do, and
+it is only by looking upon the wounded men brought in as patients that I
+can get on with my task.  Then the interest in my profession helps me,
+and I forget all about what they may have done.  But I get very weary of
+it all sometimes."
+
+"Weary, yes!" cried Frank; "but you must forgive me.  It was all my
+doing, and I must be half mad to speak to you as I did."
+
+"You are both forgetting why we came," said the professor quietly; "and
+between ourselves, you two, isn't it rather childish to talk as you do?"
+
+"I don't know," said Frank impatiently; "all I can feel is that we seem
+as far from helping poor Hal as ever."
+
+"Oh, no, we are not," said the professor.  "We must be getting very near
+to the Khalifa's strongholds now, and we are going to enter with
+pass-keys, my lad.  Once there, it will be hard if we don't find poor
+old Hal."
+
+"Hard indeed," said the doctor, with energy; "but we must and will."
+
+"Well said!" continued the professor.  "I think we have done wonders.
+Such good fortune can never have fallen to anyone before."
+
+"Good fortune!" said Frank bitterly.
+
+"Ah, you want your pulse felt, young fellow.  You've got a sour instead
+of a thankful fit upon you.  Give him something to-night, doctor."
+
+Morris bowed his head solemnly, as if he were playing Hakim still to his
+friends, and Frank made an angry gesture.
+
+"Look here," continued the professor; "you can ask old Ibrahim again if
+you are in doubt.  He'll tell you that it would have been impossible to
+have got on at such a rate as we have come, and that the difficulties
+over supplies would have been insurmountable at times.  While here,
+though we have often been scarce of water, we have never wanted once for
+food."
+
+"And how has it been obtained?" said Frank bitterly.
+
+"I don't know--I don't want to know."
+
+"You do know!" cried Frank angrily.
+
+"I tell you I won't know!" said the professor, almost as shortly.  "I
+know that we have done nothing but good all the way--that we could not
+have done it without food--and that it was given to us in payment for
+what we have done.  Be sensible, my lad.  We did not let loose these
+murderous human beasts who have made us prisoners, and whether we eat or
+starve ourselves it will make no difference to their actions.  Go on
+eating, then?  Why, of course we do.  You talk as if it were our mission
+as Christians when we came upon a wounded man to put him out of his
+misery."
+
+"No, no!" cried Frank.
+
+"But you and Bob Morris seem to think so.  You can't take one of his
+bottles of hydrocyanic acid and pour it into one of the desert wells,
+and then call the whole band up to drink, can you?"
+
+"Don't talk nonsense, Landon!" said Frank angrily.
+
+"Then don't you, my dear boy.  Can't you see that this is all outside of
+our plans?"
+
+"Yes, of course," said the doctor.
+
+"We never meant to be taken prisoners and to be forced to be chief
+surgeon-physician to a band of murderous cut-throats."
+
+"No," said Frank, "but we are."
+
+"Granted; but is it our fault?"
+
+"No," said the doctor firmly.
+
+"Can we escape from them, Frank?"
+
+There was no reply, and the professor repeated his question.
+
+"I do not see how."
+
+"Neither do I, and if I did I wouldn't try it now that we are so near
+the brave old lad we came to save.--Oh, here's Ibrahim."
+
+"Your Excellency wanted me?" said the Sheikh.
+
+"Yes.  How far do you think we are now from Omdurman?"
+
+"As far as I can make out, Excellency, by asking some of the
+camel-drivers, about four days' journey."
+
+"Hah!  That is getting near.  But have you found out yet whether we are
+really going there or farther on to Khartoum?"
+
+"No, Excellency, and I have tried hard.  No one really does know except
+the chief.  Some say we are going to Omdurman, while others say for
+certain that we shall make a sweep round into the desert and then aim
+for Khartoum.  While others--"
+
+"Opinions are various," said the professor drily.  "_Tot homines_--_tot
+sententiae_, which being interpreted, my dear Frank, you being a lad who
+always hated your Latin accidence, means, some think a tot of one thing
+is good; some think a tot of another is better.  Well, Ibrahim, what
+does the other set think?"
+
+"That the chief is going straight to Omdurman before passing on to
+Khartoum to dispose of his plunder."
+
+"Then let's hope the last are right, and then we shall have the chance
+of searching two places.  There, cheer up, Frank, and try and think of
+nothing else but our own important mission."
+
+"Of course," said the doctor.  "We did not come for the purpose of
+punishing these predatory hordes."
+
+"No," said Frank sadly; "I know.  But have a little compassion upon me,
+and forgive my irritable ways.  Look at me," he said, holding out his
+blackened hands, and then pointing with them to his face.  "Can't you
+think how great an effort it is to keep up this miserable masquerade--
+what agony it is to go about feeling that at any moment I may forget
+myself when in the presence of our masters, and speak?"
+
+"Yes, yes, I know, Frank, my dear boy," replied the professor; "and
+whenever I think of it I begin to wonder.  I used to be in a constant
+state of fidget.  `He'll let the cat out of the bag as sure as eggs are
+eggs,' I used to say to myself; and then I lay awake at night and tried
+to think out the best way of helping you till the idea came, and it has
+acted beautifully."
+
+"What idea?" said the doctor sternly.  "You never mentioned any idea to
+me."
+
+"Of course not; that would have spoiled the charm.  Even Frank does not
+know."
+
+"Then it's all nonsense," said the doctor.
+
+"Is it?  Well, we'll see.  I did help you, didn't I, Frank?"
+
+"You have always helped me in every way you could, and been like an
+elder brother towards me, and I can never be sufficiently grateful."
+
+"Bother!  Nonsense!" said the professor curtly.  "But you mean to say I
+did not specially help you over the dummy business?"
+
+"Well, I really cannot recollect any special way."
+
+"Ingrate!  And you talk about being grateful."
+
+"Well, out with it, Fred," said the doctor.  "What was your plan?"
+
+"One of my own invention," said the professor, smiling proudly.  "You,
+Frank, haven't I always lain down beside you every night when all was
+still?"
+
+"Oh, yes, of course."
+
+"And didn't I always say that I had come for a quiet chat?"
+
+"To be sure," said Frank.
+
+"And did I ever have it?"
+
+"Yes, we had one every night, carried on in a whisper."
+
+"False!" cried the professor.
+
+"True!" said Frank.
+
+"False!" cried the professor.
+
+"No, true!" said Frank.
+
+"I say false, sir, for from the time I lay down every night till you,
+being tired with your hard day's work, dropped off to sleep, I never
+hardly said a word."
+
+"Well, now you mention it," said Frank, "I don't think you did, for I
+often used to think you had gone to sleep."
+
+"Yes, and you used to ask me if I had.  But I never had, eh?"
+
+"Never once," said Frank quickly; "and I often used to feel ashamed of
+myself for being so drowsy and going off as I did."
+
+"But look here," said the doctor, "what has this got to do with your
+patent plan for keeping Frank from betraying himself?"
+
+"Everything," said the professor triumphantly.  "That was my patent
+plan.  I said to myself that sooner or later Frank would be letting--"
+
+"Yes, yes, of course, betraying himself," said the doctor impatiently.
+"But the plan, man--the plan?"
+
+"Well, that's it, my dear Hakim," cried the professor, "I said to
+myself, that poor fellow cannot exist without talking; the words will
+swell up in him like so much gas.  He must have a safety valve.  Well, I
+provided it.  I lay down beside him every night and let him talk till he
+fell asleep."
+
+"I never thought it meant anything more than a friendly feeling," said
+Frank wonderingly.  "Well, perhaps there is something in what you say."
+
+
+
+CHAPTER TWENTY THREE.
+
+A TRIUMPHAL ENTRY.
+
+It was one bright evening, just about dusk, that, utterly exhausted by a
+long day's march, the head of the long line of horses, camels heavily
+laden, and marching men, came within sight of the city that was their
+goal, and in the glimpse the English party had of the place before night
+closed in it seemed to be one of the most desolate looking spots they
+had ever seen.
+
+"But it is not fair to judge it," said the professor quietly.  "We can
+see next to nothing; it is fully two miles away; and we are all weary
+and low-spirited with our long march.  Wait till morning."
+
+It had been expected that they would march in that night, but a halt was
+called in the midst of a great, dusty plain, and preparations for
+camping were at once begun.
+
+Frank lay wakeful and restless for long enough.  In his excited state
+sleep refused to come.  Now that the goal had been reached it was hard
+to believe that they were there, and had succeeded in making their way
+to the neighbourhood of the far-famed cities of the Soudan with so
+little difficulty.  Of physical effort there had been plenty, but he had
+anticipated bitter struggles and disappointments; attempts to reach the
+prison of his brother in one direction, and being turned back, to
+attempt it again and again in others.  Instead all had been
+straightforward, and their ruse had succeeded beyond all expectation.
+
+But now that they were at one of the late Mahdi's strongholds on the
+Nile the question was, Would Harry Frere be there after all, or taken
+far to the south to the home of someone who held him as a slave?
+
+Now for about the first time the adventurer fully realised the magnitude
+of the task he had taken in hand.  The desert journey had impressed him
+by the vastness of the sandy plains and the utter desolation they had
+traversed; but that only appeared now to be the threshold of the place
+he had come to search.  All the vast continent of Africa seemed to be
+before him, dim, shadowy, and mysterious, and as he sank at last into a
+feverish sleep, it was with his brother's despairing face gazing at him,
+the reproachful eyes sunken and strained and looking farewell before all
+was dark with the obscurity of the to-come.
+
+"Hadn't you better rouse up now, sir?" said a familiar voice; but Frank,
+after his long and painful vigil, was unable to grasp the meaning of the
+words, far more to move.
+
+"Mr Frank, sir--I mean, Ben--Ben Eddin.  Humph! what an idiot I am!"
+came softly out of the gloom.  "It was bad enough to make such a slip
+out in the desert, where there were no next door neighbours; but to go
+and shout it out here, just beside this what-do-they-call-him's city was
+about the maddest thing I could have done.  S'pose some one had heard
+me; it would have taken a great deal of lathering and scraping, more
+than ever a 'Rabian Night's barber ever got through, to make people
+believe I was the Hakim's slave.
+
+"Mr--Bother!  What's the matter with me this morning?  I believe I'm
+half asleep, or else my brains are all shook up into a muddle by that
+brute of a camel.  Here, Ben Eddin, rouse up and put on your best white
+soot.  Here's the Sheikh been with a message to say that we're all going
+to form a procession and march through the town to camp in the groves on
+the other side.  It's to be a triumphal what-do-they-call-it? and the
+Baggara chief is going to show off all his prisoners and plunder, and
+we're to make the principal part of the show.  I say, Ben, do wake up;
+the coffee's nearly ready, and you ought to do a bit o' blacking, for
+the back of your neck where the jacket doesn't reach is getting quite
+grey with the sun burning it so much."
+
+Procession--show--triumph--coffee--and the rest of it, made not the
+slightest impression upon Frank's torpid brain; but those words about
+the black stain and the bleaching caused by the scorching sun somehow
+suggested the risk he might run of being discovered, and that meant the
+frustration of his plans to rescue his brother.  In a moment now his
+brain began to work.
+
+"Is that you, Sam?" he cried hastily.
+
+"I suppose so, sir, but there are times when I get pinching my leg to
+wake myself, expecting that I shall start up to find myself back in my
+pantry.  But I don't, even when I make a bruise which turns blacker than
+your arms, and with a bit of blue touched up with yellow outside.  I
+say, are you awake now?"
+
+"Yes, yes, of course; but the sun is not up yet."
+
+"No, he ain't as industrious as we are out in these parts, and doesn't
+get up so early.  Now you understand about looking your best?"
+
+"Yes, yes, I understand, Sam."
+
+"But do you really, Ben?  Don't deceive me, and go to sleep again.  If
+you do I know how it will be."
+
+"How it will be?" said Frank impatiently.
+
+"You'll say that I didn't call you.  Come, now, recollect where you are,
+and what we've got to do.  Mr Abraham--"
+
+"Ibrahim, man!  I've told you so half a dozen times before."
+
+"Then it's all right, Ben Eddin.  You are wide awake."
+
+"Yes, yes, of course.  But what about the Sheikh?"
+
+"He says we are to go to the Emir's palace."
+
+"Emir's palace?  What Emir--what palace?"
+
+"That fierce old chap as had such a bad arm.  He's an Emir.  Mr
+Imbrahim says he's just heard, and that an Emir's a great gun out here.
+Sort of prince and general all in one, I suppose.  He told me his name,
+but I forget what it is.  It's very foreign, though, and there's a good
+lot of it.  He's a great friend, and a sort of half brother of the other
+fellow."
+
+"Other fellow?  What other fellow?" said Frank, half angrily.
+
+"Oh, you know, sir, the other big man that followed the Mahdi in taking
+the Soudan."
+
+"You mean the Khalifa?"
+
+"That's right, sir.  I'm not good at all over these Egyptian chaps.
+I've one name for them all--the bad lot, and that's enough for me.  Now,
+sir--bah!  Ben Eddin, I mean; breakfast will be ready in ten minutes, so
+look sharp.  I like to see you have a good meal in the morning, just as
+I like one for myself.  It's something to keep you going all day.  It
+makes a deal of difference if you start fair."
+
+"I'll be there," said Frank.
+
+"Recollect you're to put on your clean white cotton jacket.  Mr
+Ibbrahim says his chaps have been seeing to the camels so that they
+shall look their best, and that it's very important that the Hakim
+should be dressed out well, and he will."
+
+Frank's toilet in those days was very simple, and within the time he was
+at the door of the Hakim's tent, to find him dressed and waiting to
+begin his morning meal, the professor coming from the tent directly
+after, ready to greet both and enjoy the excellent repast that was
+waiting, the Emir having kept up his attentions in that direction to the
+doctor who had saved his arm from mortification, and consequently
+himself from death.
+
+There was the loud hum of voices right away through the camp, from which
+the fragrant smoke of many fires arose through the grey dawn, and an
+unwonted stir indicating great excitement prevailed and rapidly
+increased with the coming light, for the orange and gold streamers
+announcing the rising of the sun were beginning to flush in the eastern
+sky, illumining the far-spreading city, and turning the sands where it
+was built into sparkling gold.
+
+As the sun rose higher the three Englishmen gazed wonderingly at the
+city which lay stretching to right and left--the place into which they
+were to make their triumphal entry that morning, as soon as the Emir's
+little force, which seemed to have grown unaccountably during the night,
+was marshalled; and the professor pretty well expressed the feelings of
+his two friends as he stood and gazed at the place, their eyes dwelling
+longest upon a white dome-like structure that towered up, and which they
+learned was the Mahdi's tomb.
+
+"And so this is Omdurman, is it?" he said.  "Then I suppose Khartoum
+will be just such a city of mosques and palaces.  Why, there isn't a
+redeeming feature in the whole spot!  It's just a squalid collection of
+mud-houses and hovels, built anyhow by people accustomed to live in a
+tent or nothing at all.  Why, if you took the trees away--and it
+wouldn't take long to do that--it would be fit for nothing but to be
+washed away as so much mud, if the Nile would flood as far."
+
+"But surely poor old Harry can't be here!" said the doctor, in a low,
+troubled voice.
+
+"Who knows?" said the professor softly, after glancing at Frank's pained
+features.  "We must see, and--cheer up, everybody--we will, for we shall
+have splendid chances.  Do you hear, O Chief Surgeon and Special
+Physician to the Emir?"
+
+"But look," said the doctor; "I thought the place miserable enough
+yesterday evening, while now, though the sun does give it a sort of
+golden glaze, the miserable huddle of shabby huts looks ten times worse,
+for the light exposes its ruinous state."
+
+"Go on," said the professor.  "You can't speak evil enough of it, say
+what you will.  But I say, both of you--I won't bother you much with my
+hobby--what a falling off there is everywhere; what a difference between
+the cities of the rule of the past, with their magnificent palaces and
+temples, or even the simple, majestic grandeur of the pyramids, and the
+buildings of the modern inhabitants!  The glory has departed indeed.
+Ah, here comes Ibrahim again.  Well, Sheikh, how goes the world?"
+
+"I have seen the Emir this morning, Excellencies, and he sends you
+greeting.  He desires that you ride directly after the mounted men.  You
+are to occupy a place of honour before the camels laden with the spoil
+taken by his warriors."
+
+"As his principal prisoners," said the doctor coldly.  "Well, we will
+try not to disgrace the man who has treated us as his friends.  But what
+about his son?  Am I to see and treat him before we start?"
+
+"No, Excellency.  He will ride in a litter borne by two led camels, and
+the Emir asks that you will see his son when you reach the rooms he has
+ordered to be ready for you beside his own palace."
+
+"And for my friends as well, Ibrahim?" said the doctor quickly.
+
+"Yes, Excellency; the house is large, and there are gardens and grounds
+with ample room for your servants and slaves as well as for your picked
+supply of camels.  For they are picked, O Hakim.  I have been round the
+camp this morning and seen the many beasts of burden being loaded ready
+for leading to the city.  The horses too, and these are splendid beasts.
+But the camels!  Yours, O Hakim, are well fed, young, and healthy, full
+of strength."
+
+"Mine, Ibrahim?  Yours."
+
+"No, Excellency; speak of them as yours, for yours they are.  Your name
+protects them.  If they were mine they would be taken before the day was
+past.  If we get safely back to Cairo, as Heaven willing we shall, if it
+pleases you and you are satisfied with your servant's works you may give
+them back to him when their work is really done."
+
+"We shall see, Ibrahim," said Frank, smiling, and then turning serious
+and resuming his part, for the Emir's men were approaching them,
+evidently with some message.
+
+The sun was now well up, and this being the time arranged for, so as to
+give _eclat_ to the proceedings, trumpets and uncouth sounding horns
+began to blare out, the excitement in the camp increased, and soon
+after, with a certain amount of order prevailing over the barbarous
+confusion, the procession was started, a dense crowd pouring out from
+the city into the plain to meet them; when the faint answering sound of
+trumpets arose like an echo, accompanied by the dull, soft, thunderous
+boom of many drums.
+
+At the first glance it seemed to be a grey-looking mob, all a mixture of
+black and white, debouching upon the plain; but soon after there was the
+glint of steel, and through the crowd a dense mass of horsemen could be
+seen approaching.
+
+This was the signal for a wild shout from the returning raiders,
+trumpets were blown and drums beaten with all the force their bearers
+could command, and the Emir's horsemen rode proudly onward, following
+the trumpeters and drummers; and now several standards made their
+appearance in various parts of the procession, around which horsemen
+clustered, each looking as if he felt himself to be the hero of the
+day--the triumphant warrior returning clothed with honour from the
+slaughter of the enemies of the Prophet; and to a man they would have
+been prepared to deal out ignominy and death to the daring teller of the
+simple truth that they were nothing better than so many bloodthirsty
+murderers and despoilers of the industrious builders of the villages of
+the river banks.
+
+Minute by minute the excitement grew, and the plain in front changed
+from tawny golden drab to grey, black, and white, for Omdurman seemed to
+be emptying itself in the desire to give the returning band a welcome.
+Even the horses appeared to take part in the general feeling, for they
+curvetted and pranced, encouraged by their riders, whose flowing white
+headgear and robes added with the flashing of their spears to the
+picturesque aspect of the scene.
+
+In an almost incredibly short space of time the procession was formed,
+or rather formed itself.  The slight camping arrangements had
+disappeared as if by magic, and that which one hour had been a swarming
+ant-hill of humanity, apparently all in confusion, was the next a long,
+trailing line of men, horses, and camels, headed by a barbaric band,
+moving steadily towards the entrance to the city, while the scene of the
+night's encampment was the barren plain once more, dotted with the grey
+ashes of so many fires.
+
+Onward they went in a course which meant a meeting with the horsemen
+coming from the city, and a passage through the increasing crowd, the
+Emir's warriors passing on till the head of the guard galloped up as if
+in a state of wild excitement, shouting "The Hakim!--the Hakim!"
+
+The Hakim was already mounted upon his sleek camel, in the whitest and
+most voluminous of turbans and robes, and sat with his followers,
+waiting till the last of the main body of horsemen had passed.
+
+Then came a little knot surrounding the camel litter in which lay the
+Emir's son, and at a sign from the officer, the Hakim's camel was led
+close behind the litter; Frank and the professor on their camels next;
+Sam, looking as dignified as his master, followed; with him the Sheikh,
+leading his men with the Hakim's sleek camels, of which he looked as
+proud as any member of the procession.
+
+Following close behind came the Emir himself, a swarthy, noble-looking
+savage warrior, his brother chief by his side; and then in a long line
+were the trophies of their swords and spears, the heavily laden camels
+for the most part carrying a heterogeneous collection of objects dear to
+the hearts of the raiding band, but many bearing dull, heavy-eyed women,
+several with their children, slaves of their new masters, torn from
+their homes, and for the most part seeming apathetic and taking it all
+as a matter of course--kismet (fate)--which they must patiently bear
+till the next change in their condition came to pass; one which they
+knew might be at any hour, for their careers had taught them that a
+stronger force might at any moment appear in the mysterious desert and
+come down like a tempest, to reverse their state, the conquerors of
+to-day becoming the fugitives of to-morrow.
+
+The last of the heavily laden, murmuring and groaning camels was
+followed by another troop of some fifty mounted men, whose horses
+pranced and caracoled to the faintly heard blaring of trumpet and
+beating of drum in front, while like a gigantic, ungainly serpent the
+returning force glided on over the sandy plain, till the musical (?)
+head disappeared between two long lines of horsemen who formed an avenue
+which kept back the crowd, and were ready when the last camel and the
+rear guard had passed through to fall in behind and follow their more
+fortunate plunder-laden comrades into the city.
+
+The Hakim's countenance was dignified and impressive enough to
+thoroughly keep up his character, and he listened in silence to the
+remarks made in a low tone from time to time by the professor, who was
+eagerly noting the crowd in front that they were approaching; but Frank
+sat his camel as if turned into stone, his eyes fixed upon the
+wilderness of mud-brick buildings, while he wondered which contained the
+prisoner they had come to save.
+
+The Hakim's air of dignity was of course assumed; but one of his
+followers, in spite of his long intercourse with Europeans, took to his
+position proudly and as if to the manner born, and this was the Sheikh,
+whose handsome old grey-bearded face seemed to shine with a moon-like
+radiance reflected from the principal, the Hakim being his sun.
+
+So manifest was this that after glancing at him several times in a
+half-amused, half-contemptuous way, Sam suddenly burst out with--
+
+"You seem to like it, Mr Abrahams!"
+
+The Sheikh started, and looked at the man riding the camel at his side
+in surprise.
+
+"Yes," he said; "it is old-fashioned, and not new and civilised like
+things in Cairo, but it is grand, and I am proud of the Hakim and my
+camels; are not you?"
+
+"Not a bit of it!" said Sam contemptuously.  "It's all very well for
+you, Mr Abrahams, being a native and used to it.  But me, an
+Englishman--a Londoner--proud of it!  Why, I wonder at you."
+
+"But," said the old man, "look at the camel you are riding; how soft,
+how sleek, how graceful, and how easily it moves!  Ah!  I see you are
+getting proud."
+
+"Me?  Proud?  What, of being here?" cried Sam.
+
+"Yes; you have learned to ride the camel, and you sit it easily and
+well.  You ride as if, as you Englishmen say, you were born upon it."
+
+"Oh, do we?  Well, I won't say I can't ride it now, nor I won't say it
+don't come easy.  You see, Mr Abrahams, there ain't many things an
+Englishman can't do if he gives his mind to it."
+
+"You look well, Mr Samuel," said the old man, smiling.
+
+"Now, no chaff!" said Sam suspiciously.  "No gammon!  You mean it?"
+
+"Of course."
+
+"Well, I'm glad I do.  You think these savages will think so too, and
+that I am the real thing?"
+
+"Oh, yes.  Look at the Hakim."
+
+"Sha'n't!  I've been looking till I feel ashamed of him."
+
+"Ashamed?" said the Sheikh.  "Why?"
+
+"Dressed up like that!  Him a first-class London surgeon and M.D., with
+Palladium Club and Wimpole Street on his card.  I tell you I'm ashamed
+of him, and I'm ashamed of myself, and I ain't sure now that it isn't
+all a dream."
+
+"I do not understand," said the Sheikh coldly.
+
+"You can't, Mr Abrahams.  You're a very nice, civil old gentleman, and
+I like you, and I'm much obliged for lots of good turns you've done me;
+but you see you've never been to London, and don't know what's what."
+
+"No," said the Sheikh; "I have never been to London yet, but I have
+often thought of going with some family, for I have been asked twice.
+But if I do come I shall try to see you, Mr Samuel."
+
+"Glad to see you, old chap, any time," said Sam warmly; "and if you do
+come I'll show you what our country's like."
+
+"Thank you, Mr Samuel," said the Sheikh, smiling pleasantly; "and if I
+do come I shall dress as you English do; but I will not be ashamed of
+it."
+
+"Here, you're going on the wrong road, old gentleman," said Sam.  "I'm
+not ashamed of the nightgown and nightcap.  They're cool and
+comfortable.  It's seeing the guv'nor dressed up, and him and me and Mr
+Frank and Mr Landon in this procession.  Do you know how I feel just
+now?"
+
+"Thirsty?" said the Sheikh, smiling.
+
+"Well, pretty tidy.  I shall be worse soon.  But if you come to that,
+I've been thirsty ever since I came to Egypt.  I mean I feel as if I'd
+come down to a cheap circus, and we were going into a country town where
+the big tent had been set up, and that by and by we should be all riding
+round the ring doing Mazeppa and the Wild Horse, or Timour the Tartar;
+stalls a shilling covered with red cloth; gallery thruppence."
+
+The Sheikh stared wonderingly, and then shook his head.
+
+"I do not understand, Mr Samuel," he said.
+
+"Of course you don't, sir.  How can you, seeing that you've picked up
+what you know by accident like, and not had a regular English education?
+There, it's all right.  It was only a growl, and I'm better now."
+
+"But you said you were ashamed of the Hakim."
+
+"I said so, but I ain't, Mr Abrahams.  He's splendid ain't he?"
+
+"He is grand," said the Sheikh earnestly.  "His power, his knowledge--it
+is wonderful!"
+
+"That's right, old man, so it is."
+
+"And I hope when all the work is done, and we have taken Mr Frank's--"
+
+"Steady there: Ben Eddin's."
+
+"Yes, Ben Eddin's brother safely back to Cairo, that I may have an
+accident."
+
+"An accident?" said Sam, staring.
+
+"Or a bad illness, so that the great Hakim may cure me.  Hah! what a
+physician!  It is noble--it is grand!"
+
+"I say, do you mean all that?" said Sam.
+
+"Mean it?" said the Sheikh wonderingly.  "I have been seventy years in
+the world, and for forty of those years I have been taking travellers to
+see the wonders of my land; but I have never met another man like the
+Hakim, whom I could look up to as I do to him."
+
+"You do mean it?" said Sam, whose eyes glistened and looked moist.
+"Thank you, Mr Abrahams.  You and me's the best of friends for saying
+that.  He is what you say--grand.  You like him, and don't half know
+him."
+
+"I know him to have a great heart, Mr Samuel," said the old man warmly.
+
+"Great heart, yes, and a big, broad chest; but it ain't half big enough
+to hold it.  Why, when my poor old mother was bad--dying of old age she
+was--I made bold to ask the doctor to go down to see her, meaning to pay
+him out of my savings, and feeling as I'd like the dear old girl to have
+the best advice.  Down in the country she was, forty miles away."
+
+"How sad!" said the old Sheikh.  "Two very long days' journey."
+
+"Get out!" cried Sam, laughing.  "England ain't the Soudan.  Forty miles
+by the express means under one hour's ride, Mr Abrahams."
+
+The Sheikh looked at him gravely.
+
+"Mr Samuel," he said, "the barbers in Egypt and Turkey and Persia
+always have been famous for telling wonderful stories.  I thought now
+you were speaking seriously."
+
+"So I was, and about the doctor being so good to my poor old mother.
+Twice a week he kept on going to see her till she died, and when I
+wanted to pay something, he laughed at me and said he had done it all
+for a faithful servant and friend who was a good son.  That's why I'm
+out here to look after him, Mr Abrahams.  He's splendid, and you're
+right.  Just you tumble off your camel and break a leg or a wing, or
+crack your nut, and let him put you right.  I'll nurse you, and so will
+Mr Frrrr--Ben Eddin."
+
+"Hah!  I think I will," said the Sheikh, "when we have done; only I must
+not break too much for I am growing old.  But two long days' journey in
+an hour, Mr Samuel?  The Cairo railway never does anything like that."
+
+"The Cairo railway!" said Sam scornfully.  "Don't talk about it.  Why, I
+went down into the country with the Hakim once, and we rode part of the
+way nearly twice as fast as I said.  Not eighty miles an hour, but
+seventy; that's a fact.  Hullo! what's going on now?  They look as if
+they're going to eat us."
+
+"It is only their way of showing joy, Mr Samuel."
+
+"But they're a-shouting, `Hay--keem!  Hay--keem!'"
+
+"They have heard how the Hakim saved the Emir's and his son's lives and
+cured so many more.  Hark they are saying that a great prophet is come,
+and they are crying aloud for joy."
+
+"Prophet!" said Sam grimly, as he made an atrocious joke; "not much
+profit for him, poor chap.  Why, they'll bring all the sore places out
+of the town for him to cure."
+
+"Yes, he will be a great man here."
+
+"And him sitting so cool and quiet there on his camel in his robes and
+turban, looking like one of Madame Tussaud's wax figures out for the
+day."
+
+For the excitement had been rapidly increasing, as the returning party
+were met and passed through the crowd, who had shouted themselves hoarse
+by way of welcome to the warriors, their chiefs, and to their plunder.
+The wild music, the sight of the fighting men and the spoil, had done
+much; but the news, which had spread like fire through tow, of the Hakim
+and his powers seemed to drive the excitable, wonder-loving people
+almost wild.  It was another prophet come into their midst, and had the
+procession lasted much longer the Hakim's career in Omdurman would have
+commenced with a long task of healing the injured who had been crushed
+by the crowd.
+
+Fortunately for all, the English party and the people themselves, the
+two lines of mounted men helped to keep back the rush of the crowd who
+pressed forward to see the great man of whose deeds they had just heard,
+and the length, the intricacy, and narrowness of the streets played
+their part in lessening the gathering; but it was a weary journey--one
+which grew slower and slower, till the city was completely traversed,
+and the mounted men rode off to one side, leaving the Hakim's followers
+to pass through the rough gateway of a high mud wall, over which were
+seen the pleasantest objects of the morning's ride.
+
+For over the wall rose the broad leaves of palms, and as the party rode
+into and under the greenery of a large enclosure, they found themselves
+in sight of the Emir's palace, with the camel litter just in front--a
+palace of sun-baked mud, at whose entrance-gate a dozen mounted men were
+placed to keep back the crowd, among whom were already several
+applicants for help from the Hakim.  But these were driven away at once,
+for the doctor's attention was required for the Emir's son.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER TWENTY FOUR.
+
+FREEDOM OF ACTION?
+
+The doctor's patient needed his help badly, for the exertion of the
+journey and triumphant entry had taxed his strength too much, and once
+more he was fully under the Hakim's charge, and was carried by his
+orders to the quarters assigned to the party and their following, on one
+side of the low, rambling place, and quite distinct.
+
+It was while the doctor was busily tending the sufferer in the shady
+room looking out on the greenery of the court, that the Emir himself,
+freshly dismounted after seeing to the bestowal of the trophies of the
+incursion, came in, to stand gravely aside, _waiting_ patiently till the
+Hakim, satisfied that he could do no more, left the coarse divan upon
+which the patient lay, and signed to the father that he might approach.
+
+The doctor and his assistants drew back with the Sheikh, who stayed in
+the rough chamber to act as interpreter, the professor's Arabic being
+only an unsatisfactory mode of conversation, and all save the Hakim
+looked away.
+
+But there was no need for the latter's watchfulness, the Emir seeming to
+have a perfect knowledge of what was necessary, and full confidence in
+the great man's power.  Hence it was that he contented himself with
+going down on one knee by his son's side and laying a hand upon the
+insensible man's brow for a few minutes before rising, and turning to
+the Sheikh--
+
+"Ask the Hakim if he will live," he said stoically.
+
+The answer was given directly.  "Yes, but the recovery has been thrown
+back."
+
+The Emir uttered a low, deep sigh, and bowed his head.  Then turning to
+the Hakim he took a great, clumsy-looking ring from one finger, and,
+bending low, he offered it to his prisoner.
+
+To his surprise it was declined, but in a grave and smiling way,
+accompanied too with gestures which seemed to say, "I need no payment; I
+am beyond such trifles as these."
+
+The effect was striking, for the Emir stood for a few moments gazing at
+his captive with something like awe.  Then, catching at the Hakim's
+hand, he pressed it for a moment against his forehead, and strode out of
+the room.
+
+"Humph!" ejaculated the professor, as soon as they were alone.  "I
+almost wish you had taken that ring, old fellow.  It was curiously
+antique."
+
+"I thought it better not, Fred," said the doctor quietly.  "Let's keep
+up my character of one who seeks only to do good and heal."
+
+"Yes, you're right, old fellow; but an ancient gem like that is
+tempting.  It may be a thousand years old."
+
+"And now about obtaining news of Hal," said Frank, looking from one to
+the other.  "They surely are not going to keep us shut up here?"
+
+"A little patience, Frank, lad," said the professor; "here we are,
+within the walls of Omdurman, and received as friends; it cannot be long
+before we find out whether there are other prisoners here."
+
+"Whether there are other prisoners here!" cried Frank excitedly.  "Why,
+we know."
+
+"That poor Hal was either here or at Khartoum months ago.  We must not
+be too sanguine.  He may be many miles away."
+
+"You may be right," said Frank wearily, "and I will not be sanguine; but
+if you begin dealing with probabilities and improbabilities, I may reply
+that it is quite possible that Hal is here in Omdurman--that he may even
+be in this very house.  We know that he was a prisoner, do we not?"
+
+"Of course," said the professor.
+
+"Then he would be the slave of some important man?"
+
+"Certainly, my dear boy."
+
+"Well, this Emir seems to be one of the most important men here; why may
+not fate have brought us to the very place?"
+
+"Ah, why not, Frank, lad?  But it is too improbable."
+
+"Yes," said the doctor, in his quiet, grave way; "far too improbable.
+Still, it is wonderful that we should have reached the very centre of
+the enemy's stronghold, and, what is more, that we should stand so well
+with this Emir.  Be patient, Frank, and let us see what a few days bring
+forth.  The Sheikh will begin at once, and he is a hundred times more
+likely to gain information than we are."
+
+"And the first thing to learn is how we stand."
+
+They began to find that out directly, for the coming and going of their
+guard, and a few questions from the Sheikh, supplied the information
+that this man had them in charge and was answerable to his chief for
+their safety, the Emir having quite made up his mind that the Hakim
+should form a part of his household so that he would have medical and
+surgical help when it was needed, and also that he might enjoy the
+credit of possessing so wonderful a physician, and share that of his
+cures.
+
+The arrangements made were perfectly simple; in fact, they were such as
+they would have met with in a tent; the only difference was that there
+were solid walls and a roof overhead.
+
+The Hakim learned, too, as the days glided by, that he was expected to
+see as many sick and wounded people as he conveniently could each
+morning, from the time of the first meal till noonday.  After that the
+guard turned everyone away, and as time passed on the friends found that
+the rule was never transgressed.
+
+"The people have been taught so, O Hakim," said the Sheikh.
+
+"Then we are to be at liberty for the rest of the day?" said the doctor.
+
+"Yes, O Hakim, and you are to have everything you desire.  You only have
+to speak.  It is the Emir's orders.  But if at any time you are wanted
+for the Emir's people or his friends, you are to see them in the after
+part of the day.  What is there that the Hakim would desire now?  The
+camels are well supplied, thy servants have good sleeping and
+resting-places, and supplies are sent in every morning while you are
+busy with the sick and wounded.  What shall I tell the guard you
+require?"
+
+"Our liberty," said the Hakim sternly.  "My people have been stopped
+three times when they tried to leave the gate."
+
+"Yes, O Hakim; it was the order given by the Emir to his servant, the
+guard."
+
+"Then tell the guard what I say.  The confinement here is too great."
+
+"There is the garden beneath the trees, Excellency," said the Sheikh.
+
+"Yes, but we wish to see the town--to go where we will."
+
+"I will go to the guard and tell him, Excellency," said the Sheikh
+humbly, and he went away.
+
+Within an hour--a long and weary one to Frank--he was back.
+
+"I have seen the chief guard, Excellency, and he has taken your message
+to the Emir, who sent for me at once."
+
+"Well?" said the doctor; and Frank and the professor came close to hear
+the reply.
+
+"The Emir Prince sends greeting to your Excellency," said the old
+Sheikh, who seemed greatly impressed at being made the medium of
+communication between two such great men, "and he thanks you humbly for
+the great change you have made in his dear son, who seems to be hourly
+gaining strength."
+
+"Yes, yes," said the doctor, rather impatiently; "go on."
+
+"The Emir Prince says that he is aggrieved because you make so few
+demands for yourself and your people, for he desires that you should
+treat his home as yours, and have all that you desire."
+
+"Then he gives us our liberty to go where we please?" said the doctor
+eagerly, and Frank and the professor gave vent to sighs of satisfaction
+which made the Sheikh's brow wrinkle.
+
+"The Emir desires me to say that your servants are at liberty to go
+where they please in the city or out into the country round; and that as
+he has noticed that the great Hakim has beautiful camels but no horses,
+he has only to speak and horses will be brought for his servants' use."
+
+"I shall keep to my camel, Ibrahim," said the doctor.  "I think it will
+seem best, more in character.  What do you think?"
+
+The old man was silent.
+
+"What does this mean?" said Frank, for he was first to notice the
+Sheikh's troubled look.
+
+"The Emir Prince bade me say to his Excellency that he could not allow
+the great Hakim to go about among the people, for his life would be made
+a burden to him--he could not go a step without having a crowd of
+sufferers following him and throwing themselves beneath his camel's
+feet."
+
+The doctor frowned.
+
+"He said that the great Hakim's health and comfort were dear to him, and
+he felt that it would be better that so great a man should live as
+retired a life as the Khalifa himself."
+
+"Then I am to be kept regularly as a prisoner?" said the doctor, in
+dismay.
+
+"But if sometimes the noble Hakim desires greatly to ride through the
+city and out into the country, if he will send word by the guard, the
+Emir will summon the horsemen and attend upon his friend and preserver
+as a guard of honour, and protect him from the crowds that would stop
+his way."
+
+"Oh, who wants to be paraded in a show?" said the doctor petulantly.  "I
+would rather stop in prison than be led out like that, eh, Fred?"
+
+"Certainly," said the professor.
+
+"Well, never mind," said the doctor cheerfully, the next minute.  "I
+will not complain.  I have my part to play, and I mean to go on playing
+it contentedly while you and Frank play yours, and find out where poor
+old Hal is kept a prisoner.  That done, we must begin to make our plans
+to escape either back to Cairo or to the nearest post of the
+Anglo-Egyptian army."
+
+"Or the river," said Frank.  "But I don't like this, for us to be free
+and you a prisoner."
+
+"It is the penalty for being so great a man," said the doctor merrily.
+"And really there is a large amount of common-sense in what our friend
+says.  I should be regularly hunted through the streets, and I could not
+go in Eastern fashion and turn a deaf ear to the poor wretches who cast
+themselves at my feet."
+
+"But it seems so hard for you," said Frank.
+
+"And it takes all the satisfaction out of our perfect freedom," said the
+professor.
+
+"But your Excellencies are not to have perfect freedom," said Ibrahim
+slowly.
+
+"What do you mean?" cried Frank.
+
+"When you go out I and three or four of my young men are to attend you
+with the camels."
+
+"So much the better, Ibrahim.  You will be invaluable to us."
+
+"Your Excellency is very good to say so," replied the old man sadly;
+"but that is not all."
+
+"Not all?" cried the professor.
+
+"No, Excellency.  The Emir Prince says that he feels answerable to the
+great Hakim for your safety; that you are well known to be the Hakim's
+followers, and that there are wise men, Hakims of the people here in
+Omdurman and Khartoum, who are dogs, he said--fools and pretenders who
+can do nothing but work ill.  These people, he says, hate the great
+Hakim with a jealous hate, and would gladly injure his servants.
+Therefore he gives the head of his bodyguard, the Baggara who has charge
+of us here, orders to attend you everywhere you go."
+
+"Alone?" said Frank, after a few moments' display of blank surprise and
+annoyance.
+
+"No, Excellency; always with eight or ten men; and he is to answer for
+your safety abroad and here with his head."
+
+The Sheikh's words seemed to have robbed the little party of the power
+of speech.  But at last Frank exclaimed--
+
+"Then we have journeyed all this way for naught?"
+
+"To be as badly off as if we had stayed in Cairo and waited for the
+British and Egyptian advance."
+
+"No," said the doctor quietly; "disappointment is making you both go to
+extremes.  We are here on the spot, and we must work by other hands."
+
+"Whose?" said Frank bitterly.
+
+The doctor pointed gravely to Ibrahim, who drew himself up with a look
+at the speaker full of gratitude and pride.
+
+"Yes, O Hakim," he said quietly; "it seems that I and my young men are
+at liberty to come and go with the camels, and we can mix with the
+people as we please.  If, then, their Excellencies will trust their
+servant and give him time he will do all he can to search out tidings of
+their friend and brother.  Shall it be so?"
+
+"Yes," said the doctor firmly.
+
+The old Sheikh bowed, and then turned to Frank.
+
+"Ben Eddin is black," he said, with a smile, "and the day or night may
+come when I shall say to him, `I have glad tidings for you.  Come as one
+of my camel-drivers, and maybe I can get you past the guard.'"
+
+"Ibrahim!" cried the young man wildly, "don't promise me too much."
+
+"I promise nothing, Ben Eddin," said the old man smiling; "but an Arab
+Sheikh and the black slave with him can go far unnoticed.  Wait and see.
+Till then go on and be a patient servant to the sick man here, the
+Emir's son.  He likes you in his way.  Maybe he will be better soon, and
+want you to bear him company here and there."
+
+"Yes, it is possible," cried Frank excitedly.
+
+"And it would give you time to search the place or learn by chance where
+the prisoner may be.  It is not wise to let the heart sink in sorrow as
+the sun goes down amongst the mists of night.  Does it not rise again
+and bring the light?  Surely it is better that you are here."
+
+"Yes," said Frank eagerly.  "I spoke in haste."
+
+
+
+CHAPTER TWENTY FIVE.
+
+SAM'S TONGUE.
+
+As soon as the first disappointment had passed off it was decided to
+make the best of their position--one whose advantages soon grew upon the
+adventurers.  So the Hakim settled down steadily to his task of healing,
+and the Emir's son not only rapidly improved, but grew more friendly as
+he gained strength.
+
+This friendliness was not displayed in his behaviour towards his doctor
+but in his dealings with Frank, who in his efforts to help Morris
+devoted himself heart and soul to their principal patient.
+
+The young Emir had from the first seemed to be attracted by Frank, while
+he was morose to his white attendants, the very fact of the young man
+being a black and a slave to a white seeming to form a bond of sympathy;
+and finding that the Hakim would take no gifts, he often showed his
+satisfaction by making some present or another to his dumb attendant.
+
+A greater one was to come.
+
+Advantage was soon taken of the Emir's concession.  Notice was given to
+the Baggara guard, and one afternoon, guarded by six mounted men, Frank,
+the professor, and Sam, attended by the Sheikh, mounted their camels and
+rode out of the palace gates to inspect the city and a part of its
+surroundings, with which, from the freedom he had already enjoyed,
+Ibrahim was becoming pretty well acquainted.
+
+As soon as they started, the guard fell back to the rear, contenting
+themselves with following, and leaving the Sheikh to take whatever
+course he chose, so that he led, with Frank at his side, talking to him
+in a low voice as if describing all they saw to his dumb companion, who
+questioned him from time to time with his eager eyes.
+
+Long experience as dragoman and guide had made the old man wonderfully
+intelligent and apt to comprehend his employer's desires, and that he
+did so now was shown at the first start.
+
+"Which way am I going, Ben Eddin?" he said quietly.  "Through the better
+parts of the city, where the wealthier people are, who keep slaves," and
+in a few minutes Frank was gazing about him with horror as he asked
+himself what must the worst parts of the place be if these were the
+best.  For eyes and nostrils were disgusted at every turn.  The heat was
+intense, and wherever any creature died or the offal of the inhabitants'
+food was cast out into the narrow ways, there it festered and rotted
+beneath the torrid rays of the sun, while myriads of loathsome flies,
+really a blessing to the place in their natural duty of scavengers, rose
+in clouds, and to hurry from one plague was only to rush into another.
+
+Misery, neglect, and wretchedness appeared on every hand; but the
+population swarmed, and habit seemed to have hardened them to the power
+of existing where it appeared to be a certainty that some pestilence
+must rise and sweep them off.
+
+Frank was not long in discriminating between the free and the enslaved.
+Those swarthy, black often and shining, sauntering about well-armed, and
+with a haughty, insolent bearing and stare at the mounted party; these
+dull of eye and skin, cringing, dejected, half naked, and often
+displaying the marks of the brutality of their conquerors, as they bent
+under heavy loads or passed on with the roughest of agricultural
+implements to and from the outskirts of the town.
+
+"Plenty of slaves, Ben Eddin," said the Sheikh gravely.  "Poor wretches,
+swept in from the villages to grow the Baggara's corn and draw and carry
+their water.  They spare their camels to make these people bear the
+loads.  Plenty of slaves.  Look!"
+
+Frank's eyes were already noting that to which the Sheikh drew his
+attention, for a party of about a dozen unhappy fellaheen, joined
+together by a long chain, which in several cases had fretted their black
+skins into open sores, were being driven along by a Baggara mounted upon
+a slight, swift-looking camel, from whose high back he wielded a
+long-lashed whip, and flicked with it from time to time at the bare skin
+of one of the slaves who cringed along looking ready to drop.
+
+They were on in front, stopping the way in the narrow street between two
+rows of mud-brick houses, and consequently Frank's party had to slacken
+their pace, the driver having glanced insolently back at them and then
+fixed his eyes half-wonderingly upon Frank, before turning again and
+continuing his way, quite ignoring the fact that those behind were
+waiting to pass.
+
+When he stopped he had turned his camel across the narrow road,
+completely blocking the way, and when he went on again, after gazing his
+full, he hurried his camel a little so as to overtake the last of the
+ironed slaves, and lashed at him sharply, making the poor wretch wince
+and take a quick step or two which brought him into collision with his
+fellow-sufferer in front, causing him to stumble and driving him against
+the next, so that fully half of the gang were in confusion.
+
+The result was a savage outburst from their driver, who pressed on,
+making his whip sing through the air and crack loudly, as he lashed at
+the unfortunates, treating them far worse than the beasts that perish;
+but not a murmur arose as they stumbled on through the foul sand of the
+narrow way.
+
+But there was one sound, a low, harsh, menacing grating together of
+teeth, and the Sheikh, who had long been inured to such scenes, turned
+sharply, to see that Frank's eyes were blazing with the rage within him.
+
+"Yes," he whispered warningly, "it is horrible; but they are the
+conquering race from the south.  We must bear it.  Yes."
+
+"Hah!" sighed Frank, and he shuddered at the bare idea of his brother
+being a victim to such a fate.
+
+Just at that moment the roadway widened out a little, and the Sheikh
+took advantage of this to press on, so as to get his party past the
+depressing scene.
+
+The camel he rode protested a little, and at the moaning growl it
+uttered the Baggara turned a little, and his eyes met those of Frank,
+looking dark and menacing.
+
+"Hasten, Ben Eddin," whispered the Sheikh, and the young man's camel
+made step for step with that of the Sheikh; but before Frank's eyes
+quitted those of the slave-driver the man said something fiercely,
+raised his whip, and was in the act of striking at the young Englishman
+when there was a plunge, a bound, and the leader of the Emir's guard had
+driven his beautiful Arab horse against the flank of the driver's camel,
+sending the poor beast staggering against the mud house to the left and
+nearly dismounting the rider.
+
+In an instant the savage turned with raised whip upon his aggressor, but
+the guard's keen, straight sword flashed out of the scabbard, and the
+sight of the rest of the party cowed him, while pointing forward, the
+guard sat watching him sternly till the party had passed the gang, when,
+with a quick sweep of his sharp blade he caught the whip close to the
+shaft, sheared it off, and then pressing his horse's sides he bounded
+on, leaving the brute scowling in his rear.
+
+"We are to be saved from all insult, Ben Eddin," said the Sheikh
+gravely; "but you must not resent anything you see, and this shows you
+how careful we must be."
+
+"Yes, but it makes my blood boil," said Frank to himself, as he gave the
+old Arab a meaning look full of promise as regards care.
+
+They rode on and on and in and out through what at times was a teeming
+hive of misery and degradation, where filth and disorder seemed to be
+rampant.  At times there were houses of larger build, and here and there
+attempts had been made to enclose a garden, in which there was the
+refreshing sight of a few trees; but the monotony of the place was
+terrible, and the absence of all trace of a busy, thriving, industrious
+population was depressing in the extreme.
+
+"We must ride out from the city another time, Ben Eddin," said the
+Sheikh gravely, after they had gone on through the crowded ways for
+fully a couple of hours, their guard following patiently in the rear,
+and their presence ensuring a way being made through some of the
+well-armed, truculent-looking groups.
+
+"Yes," said the professor, who overheard his words; "and I am afraid
+that we shall do no good hunting among these narrow streets.  Can't you
+take us amongst the houses of the better-class folk, Ibrahim?"
+
+"That is what I am trying to do, Excellency," said the old man; "but you
+see--wherever there is a big house it is shut in with walls, and there
+are so few--so few.  It is like one of our worst villages near Cairo
+made big--so big, and so much more dirty and bad."
+
+"The place is a horror, Frank," said the professor.  "I wonder the
+people do not die off like flies."
+
+"Doubtless they do, Excellency," said the old Sheikh gravely.
+
+"They must, Frank," continued the professor.  "The dry sand saves the
+place from being one vast pest-house.  Look at the foul dogs, and yonder
+at the filthy vultures seated on the top of that mud house."
+
+"There's lot's more coming, sir," said Sam, putting in a word, as he
+looked upward in a disgusted way.  "I do hate those great, bald-headed
+crows."
+
+"Hideous brutes!" said the professor, watching the easy flight of about
+half a dozen that were sailing round as if waiting to swoop down upon
+some prey.
+
+"There is a dead body near," said the Sheikh calmly.
+
+"What, on in front?" said the professor quickly; "for goodness' sake,
+then, let's go another way!"
+
+The Sheikh looked at him half-protestingly, and shrugged his shoulders a
+little.
+
+"Does his Excellency mean to go back the way we came?" he said.  "It is
+very bad, and if we go by here we shall soon be outside upon the wide
+plain where we can ride round to the gate near the Emir's palace."
+
+"Then by all means let's go on," said the professor.
+
+"There may be nothing dead," said the Sheikh.  "I think not, for the
+birds are waiting."
+
+There was evidently, though, some attraction, for the numbers of the
+birds were increasing as they pushed on, to ride out into an opening all
+at once--a place which had probably been a garden surrounded by
+buildings, now fast crumbling into dust, and here upon one side, not a
+dozen yards away, lay the attraction which had drawn the scavenger birds
+together, at least a hundred more that they had not previously seen
+dotting the ruins in all directions.
+
+"What a place!" said the professor, halting the beast he rode, which,
+like its fellows, instead of paying the slightest heed seemed to welcome
+the rest; and they all stood bowing their heads gently as if it were a
+mere matter of course, and no broad hint of their fate in the to-come.
+
+For there, crouched down with its legs doubled beneath, was a large
+camel, evidently in the last stage of weakness and disease, its ragged
+coat and flaccid hump hanging over to one side, bowing its head slowly
+at the waiting vultures, that calm, bald-headed and silent, sat about
+with their weird heads apparently down between their shoulders--a great
+gathering, waiting for the banquet that was to be theirs.
+
+Frank had hard work to repress the words which rose to his lips, and he
+signed to the Sheikh as he urged his beast forward.
+
+"Hold hard a minute," said the professor; "it is not nice, but I want to
+see in the cause of natural history.  I never saw a camel die."
+
+Frank knit his brows, and in the cause of natural history felt glad that
+the loathsome birds refrained from attacking the wretched beast until it
+was dead.
+
+The poor animal had, however, nearly reached what was for it that happy
+state of release, for as the professor watched, the camel slowly raised
+its head, throwing it back until its ears rested against its hump, gazed
+upwards towards the sky, shivered, and was at rest.
+
+"Poor brute!" said the professor; "and what a release.  Why, Ibrahim, I
+thought the Arab of the desert was tender to his beast, whether it was
+camel or horse?"
+
+"Well, Excellency," said the old man proudly, "look at the camel you
+ride; look at these.  I am an Arab: have you ever seen me otherwise than
+merciful to my beasts?"
+
+"No," said the professor; "but look at that wretched creature!  Ugh! how
+horrible!  Let's ride on."
+
+It was time, for nearly heedless of the presence of man, the vultures
+were dropping down from the ruins, and those in the air were making a
+final sweep round before darting upon their carrion prey.  The party
+rode on in silence for a few minutes, the Sheikh waiting for the
+professor to continue; but he remained silent, and the old man began in
+protest--
+
+"An Arab does not leave his beast like that, Excellency.  These men here
+are not Arabs, but the fierce, half-savage people from high up the
+country, who have descended the river, killing and destroying, till
+wherever they stop the land is turned into a waste.  Time back, when the
+great general was sent up to Khartoum, we said `Now there will be peace,
+and the savage followers of the Mahdi will be driven back into the
+wilds; people will dare to live again and grow their corn and pasture
+their flocks and herds;' but, alas! it was not to be.  The great Gordon
+was murdered, his people slaughtered, and the country that has been
+watered with the blood of the just still cries aloud for help.  Is it
+ever to come?"
+
+"Yes, Ibrahim, and soon," said the professor.  "Who knows of the
+preparations being made better than you?"
+
+"Yes, Excellency, I know," said the Sheikh slowly; "but it is so long in
+coming, and while they are waiting to be freed from the horrible tyranny
+of the Mahdi and his successor, the people wither away and die."
+
+The old man looked at Frank as he spoke, and the young man gave him an
+approving nod, after which they rode on through the squalor and horrors
+of the place till the road grew more straight and wide, the hovels
+fewer.  Then the filth and misery grew scarcer, patches of cultivated
+land appeared, from which weary-eyed faces looked up, half wondering,
+here and there, but only to sink listlessly again as their owners toiled
+on, with taskmasters ready to urge them on with their labour, as they
+tortured their sluggish oxen toiling at water-wheel or grinding at a
+mill.
+
+But for the most part the Baggaras' slaves allowed the passers-by to go
+unnoticed, never once lifting their eyes from the ground.
+
+As the party rode slowly on, their eyes carefully searched the buildings
+they passed in these outskirts of the town, till they reached the
+entrance where they first arrived, and soon after were winding their way
+in and out of the narrow streets till they came to their portion of the
+Emir's palace, and passed the guarded gate, to thankfully throw
+themselves upon the rugs of their shadowy room, hot, weary, and choked
+with dust.
+
+"Well," said the Hakim, as soon as their guards were out of hearing,
+"good news?"
+
+"No," said Frank, "the worst.  We might go wandering in and out of this
+desolation of sordid hovels and crumbling huts for years, and see no
+sign of the poor fellow."
+
+"And perhaps pass the place again and again," added the professor.  "We
+are going the wrong way to work.  What do you say, Ibrahim?"
+
+"Thy servant fears that it is useless to go searching in such a way as
+this," replied the old Sheikh.  "The city is so big--there are so many
+thousands crowding the place."
+
+"Then what can we do?" said Frank wearily.
+
+"Only try to get news of a white slave who was taken at Khartoum,
+Excellency," said the old man calmly.  "I am working, but I fear to ask
+too much, for fear that I might do harm."
+
+"Have we gone the wrong way to work, after all?"
+
+"No," said the doctor decisively.  "We are here, and Khartoum is so far
+away.  You are hot and weary now, Frank; rest and refresh, my lad; they
+are grand remedies for despair."
+
+"Yes," said the professor; "I feel as much out of heart as you, my boy,
+but common-sense says that we have only tried once."
+
+Frank nodded, and rose to go into the room he shared with Sam, too weary
+and disheartened to notice that his old friend's servant had followed
+him, till he was startled by feeling the man's cool hands busy about him
+with a brass basin of cool water and a sponge, when he sat up quickly.
+
+"Why, Sam," he cried, "are you going mad?"
+
+"Hope not, sir," said the man, "though that hot sun and the dust can't
+be good."
+
+"But what are you doing?"
+
+"What'll set you right, sir, and ready for your meal."
+
+"But you forget that I am the Hakim's slave."
+
+"Not I, sir.  Keep still, the black won't come off."
+
+"But I can't let you be waiting upon me.  Suppose one of the Emir's men
+came in."
+
+"Well, that would be awkward, sir; but I'd chance it this time."
+
+"No," said Frank stoically.  "There, I feel a little rested now.  Go on
+and bathe yourself.  You want it as badly as I."
+
+"But let me tend you a bit, sir--Ben."
+
+"Sir Ben!" cried Frank angrily.  "You mean to betray us, then?"
+
+"It's just like me, Ben Eddin; but you will let me give you a cool
+sponge down?  It's quite right, sir, as a barber."
+
+"No, no, I'm better now," said Frank sharply, and he busied himself in
+getting rid of the unpleasant traces of their ride, feeling the better
+for the effort he was forced to make, and listening in silence to Sam,
+who, after so long an interval from conversation was eager to make use
+of his tongue.
+
+"Hah!" he said; "water is a blessing in a country like this; but oh, Ben
+Eddin, did you ever see such a place and such a people?"
+
+"No," said Frank shortly.  "Horrible!"
+
+"Why, our Arabs, sir, with their bit of a tent are princes and kings to
+'em.  Ugh! the horrible filth and smells and sights, and then the
+slaves!"
+
+"Horrible!" said Frank again.
+
+"I've read a deal about slavery, sir, and the--what do they call it?--
+atrocities; but what they put in print isn't half bad enough."
+
+"Not half," assented Frank.
+
+"After what I have seen to-day, not being at all a killing and
+slaughtering sort of man, I feel as if it's a sort of duty for our
+soldiers to come up here with fixed bayonets, and drive the black
+ruffians right away back into the hot deserts they came from.  Did you
+see inside one of those huts we passed?"
+
+"I saw inside many, Sam," replied Frank.
+
+"I meant that one where the two miserable-looking women came to the door
+to see us pass."
+
+"What, where a man came back to them just before we reached the dying
+camel?"
+
+"Yes; that was the place."
+
+"I just caught a glimpse of him as we passed."
+
+"Was that all, Ben Eddin?"
+
+"Yes, that was all.  Why?"
+
+"Ah, you were on first, and I was a bit behind the professor, sir, and I
+saw it all."
+
+"What did you see?"
+
+"Saw him go up to first one and then the other, knocking them down with
+a big blow of his fist; and the poor things crouched with their faces in
+the sand and never said a word."
+
+"The savage!"
+
+"That's right," said Sam viciously.  "I was talking to Mr Abraham about
+it afterwards, and he said he saw it too, and that they were slaves,
+like hundreds upon hundreds more, who had been taken in some village the
+wretches had looted, and that he hadn't a doubt that their husbands had
+been cut down and killed in one of the raids.  What's a raid, sir?"
+
+"A plundering expedition, Sam," said Frank wearily, "such as that the
+Emir was upon when we were captured."
+
+"Oh, I see, sir.  Big sort o' savage kind o' murder and burglary,
+wholesale, retail, and for exportation, as you may say.  When they want
+anything they go out and take it?"
+
+"Exactly."
+
+"Hah!  That's what old Mr Abraham meant when he said that these Soudan
+tribes didn't care about settling down and doing any gardening or
+farming, because they could go and help themselves whenever they wanted.
+He said they were black locusts who came out of the south."
+
+"He was quite right, Sam," replied Frank, "and you have seen the effect
+of their visits; every place is devastated, and the poorer, industrious
+people get perfectly disheartened."
+
+"I see, sir.  Feel it's no use to get together a bit of a farm and some
+pigs, because as soon as the corn's ripe and the pigs are fat these
+locusts come and eat the lot."
+
+"You are right as far as the corn is concerned, Sam," said Frank,
+smiling; "but I don't think you have seen many pigs since you have been
+out here."
+
+"Well, now you come to mention it, sir, I haven't.  I was thinking about
+it when I saw some of those bits of farm places outside where the slaves
+were at work, and it made me think of an uncle of mine who was in that
+line of business away in the country--he's a rich farmer now out in Noo
+Zealand.  I used to go for a holiday to see him sometimes down in
+Surrey, and he would say that there was nothing like having a good sow
+and a lot of young pigs coming on, different sizes, in your styes, for
+they ate up all the refuse and got fat, and you'd always something to
+fall back on for your rent, besides having a nice bit of bacon in the
+rack for home use.  He said he never saw a small farm get on without
+pigs.  Some one ought to show 'em how to do it out here.  But I don't
+know what would be the use of fattening up your pigs for the Mahdi chaps
+to come and drive them away."
+
+"There is no fear of either, Sam," said Frank, smiling.  "These
+Mohammedan people look upon the pig as an unclean beast."
+
+"Well, that's true enough, sir; but it is his nature to.  He's nasty in
+his habits, but he's nice."
+
+"I mean unclean--not fit to eat--a Mohammedan would be considered
+defiled by even touching a pig."
+
+"Ho!" said Sam scornfully, "and I suppose killing and murdering and
+getting themselves covered with blood makes 'em clean!  Unde--what do
+you call it?--undefiled.  Well, all I can say is that the sooner this
+holy man and his followers are chivied out of the country the better."
+
+"Yes--yes--yes, Sam," said Frank, more wearily; "but don't talk to me.
+I want to think."
+
+"I know, sir, about Mr Harry, sir; but don't think, sir.  You think too
+much about him."
+
+"What!" cried Frank angrily.
+
+"It's true, sir.  You're fretting yourself into a sick bed, and though
+I'd sit up o' nights, and do anything in the way of nursing you, sir, we
+can't afford to have you ill."
+
+"Why not, Sam?" said the young man bitterly.  "It is all hopeless.  Poor
+Harry is dead, and the sooner I follow him the better."
+
+"Mr Frank--Ben Eddin, I mean--I do wonder at you!  It don't seem like
+you speaking.  Never say die, sir!  What, talk about giving up when
+we've got to the place we were trying for!  There, I know.  You're done
+up with being out in the sun.  But cheer up, sir.  You come and have
+something to eat, and then have a good night's rest.  You'll feel
+different in the morning.  Why, we've hardly begun yet.  You knew before
+you started that Mr Harry's up here somewhere.  Well, we've got to find
+him, and we will."
+
+"If I could only think so," groaned Frank.
+
+"Think so, then, sir," said Sam earnestly.  "Why look at me, sir.  'Bout
+a month ago I used to groan to myself and think what a fool I was to
+leave my comfortable pantry in Wimpole Street to come on what I called a
+wild-goose chase; but I came round and made up my mind as it was a sort
+o' duty to the guv'nor and you gents, and though I can't say I like it,
+for the smells are horrid, and the way the people live and how they
+treat other people disgusting, I'm getting regular used to it.  Why, if
+you gentlemen were to call me to-morrow and to say that the job seemed
+what you called it just now, hopeless, and you were going back, I should
+feel ashamed of you all.  You take my advice, sir, and stick to it like
+a man.  It's like looking for a needle in a bundle of hay, I know; but
+the needle's there, and you've got to pick out the hay bit by bit till
+there's nothing left but dust--it's sand here--then you've got to blow
+the dust away, and there's the needle."
+
+"That's good philosophy, Sam," said Frank, smiling.
+
+"Is it, sir?  Well, I am glad of it.  I only meant it for good advice."
+
+
+
+CHAPTER TWENTY SIX.
+
+A FIGHT AMONG FRIENDS.
+
+As is generally the case when one's heart feels most sick, a good rest
+brings light and hope back from behind the clouds, and Frank Frere awoke
+the next morning feeling ready for any amount more effort, as he
+carefully applied more of the water to his skin, after dissolving a few
+crystals, with the result that when the solution was dry he was ready to
+compare with the blackest slave in the city, while after breakfast he
+was in the best of spirits as he helped the Hakim over his patients--
+poor creatures half blind from the horrible ophthalmia produced by the
+desert dust and sand; wounded men, sufferers from the terrible fevers of
+the country; and as he saw them go away relieved a pleasant sensation of
+what French people call _bien etre_ stole over him.
+
+Then the Emir's son came in his litter and was attended to, the Hakim
+saying, when his task was done and Ibrahim had been summoned, that the
+patient need come no more, at which he frowned and looked displeased,
+and the next day he came again, contenting himself with seeing Frank
+only, and on leaving presenting him with a new white robe.
+
+The following morning he was back again to see Frank, and when he left,
+the professor laughingly made the remark that the Emir's son was
+evidently a young man of very low tastes, he being a prince among his
+people and taking to the society of a slave.
+
+Another excursion was made through the city, with the guard following
+patiently, and evidently feeling something like contempt for these
+strange people who preferred wearying themselves in wandering through
+the filthy lanes of the city to sitting comfortably in the Emir's
+grounds, smoking a long pipe in the shade of the trees.  But they were
+silent and watchful all the same saving the travellers more than once
+from insult and attack.
+
+Then days followed days with always the same result: weary hopelessness;
+and a long conversation ensued, the result of which was that as the
+number of important cases had diminished and the complaints of the poor
+patients were for the most part of a kind that their own Hakims could
+very well attend, a petition should be taken to the Emir, asking him to
+send the Hakim on to Khartoum with his people to do good there.
+
+This was announced to Ibrahim, who shook his head.
+
+"Why do you do that?" said Frank quickly.
+
+"For reasons, Excellency.  I have been much about the city lately."
+
+"I know," said Frank, "and supposed that you were still searching now."
+
+"I was, Excellency."
+
+"So have we been, as you know, but without result.  You have found out
+nothing?"
+
+"Not yet, Excellency, but I am still hopeful."
+
+"We are still hopeful," said Frank, "but we feel that it is time to
+journey on to Khartoum and search there.  We can come back here if we
+fail."
+
+"But the Emir will not let you go, Excellency."
+
+"How do you know that?"
+
+"I feel sure, Excellency, and then there is the young Emir; he spoke to
+me yesterday about having you in his household."
+
+"Having me?" said Frank, aghast.
+
+"Yes, Excellency; he has taken a fancy to you.  Did he not make you
+another present yesterday?"
+
+"Yes," said Frank; "a handsome sword and knife.  Of course, I did not
+want them, but you know his disposition."
+
+"Yes," said the professor; "he would have looked black as thunder and
+flown in a passion if you had refused them."
+
+"He did because I hesitated.  But we must try if the Emir will consent."
+
+"We might propose going for a time," said the doctor, "and promise to
+come back, as there is so little to do here for the people."
+
+The Sheikh shook his head.
+
+"I daresay you are right, Ibrahim," said Frank; "but we are doing no
+good at all here, and you must try."
+
+"I am your Excellencies' servant," said the old man quietly, "and I will
+do my best; but I would rather we stayed here for a while longer."
+
+"Hah!" exclaimed Frank excitedly; "then you have some clue!"
+
+"No, no; not yet, Ben Eddin," said the old man, who looked startled by
+the speaker's manner; "but I have hopes.  I have been trying so hard,
+making friends with several of the better people, and as your English
+Excellencies would say, feeling my way.  When we find your Excellency's
+brother it will be through my meeting some one who knows what slaves
+have been kept.  But it is very hard.  I dare not say much, for fear of
+making the people doubt that I am a friend."
+
+"Yes, that is true, Ibrahim," said the doctor gravely; "and I like your
+caution.  But make one appeal to the Emir to let us go to Khartoum for a
+few weeks.  Ask him to send us with an escort--say with our present
+guard."
+
+The old Sheikh shook his head.
+
+"The great Hakim does not understand," he said.  "The Khalifa has many
+followers, Emirs and chiefs of tribes who are banded with him to conquer
+and hold the Soudan.  But they are all chiefs in their own right who
+have brought their followers, and the jealousy and hate among them is
+great.  The Emir, our friend, is one of the greatest, but he has enemies
+here."
+
+"Ah, you know that?" said Frank eagerly.
+
+"Yes, Excellency, chiefs who hate him, but his son more, for he is rude
+and scornful to them."
+
+"I can understand that," said the professor.  "Go on."
+
+"These other chiefs hate our Emir for his power and strength, and would
+be glad to drive him back into his own country, and he knows it.  But at
+Khartoum I hear that he has greater enemies.  The Khalifa and one of his
+generals both dislike him and fear that he is trying to become a greater
+ruler than they; and knowing this he would not send you with a part of
+his own guard, neither would the Khalifa let him do this; but I will see
+him to-morrow, Excellencies, and tell him your wishes.  If he gives you
+his leave to go he will send messengers to the Khalifa, asking him to
+receive the great Hakim and send guards to fetch you.  But I fear.  He
+will think that you will never return.  Shall I go to him now?"
+
+"No," said the doctor; "wait till the morning, and do your best, for I
+feel that we may do more good at Khartoum.  We will return if we find no
+better fortune than here."
+
+"It is good, great Hakim," said the old man; "thy servant is always
+ready to obey."
+
+That day passed quietly on, with the friends eagerly discussing their
+plans of action regarding the proposed change, Frank being the most
+hopeful and displaying intense eagerness.
+
+"Ibrahim is a fatalist," he said.  "He has taken it into his head that
+we shall find Harry here, but I feel convinced now that he is a prisoner
+in Khartoum or the neighbourhood, and I do not think, after all we have
+done, that the Emir will refuse us."
+
+"I don't know," said the professor dubiously.
+
+"Oh, don't, don't you take old Ibrahim's views, Landon," cried Frank.
+"I doubt whether there is so much jealousy amongst men who are bound
+together for one special object.  There is a little, no doubt.  Look
+here, let's ask the Emir and his son--or his son alone--to take us there
+himself.  They may be glad to go, as they seem so proud of Morris and
+all his cures.  For my part, I think he will."
+
+"And I believe Ibrahim," said the doctor gravely.  "If it is as he
+thinks, our Emir would not trust himself in Khartoum without all his
+following, and--"
+
+"What's the matter?" cried the professor sharply, for just then their
+head guard rushed to the door, sword in hand, followed by three of his
+men armed with spears, while for the moment it struck Frank that the
+present he had received was about to prove useful, and he took a step
+towards his room where it was hanging in its sheath against the wall.
+
+The officer said something excitedly as he waved his sword, and the
+man's manner suggested that he had come with his followers to massacre
+the party.
+
+But at that moment Ibrahim entered, looking wild and strange, and a few
+words passed between him and the guard, while from outside the walls
+there was shouting, the trampling of horses, and hurried rush of feet.
+
+"For heaven's sake speak, Ibrahim!" cried the professor in Arabic.
+"What does this man mean?"
+
+"He has come to see that you are all safe, Excellency," said the old
+man.  "The Emir sends orders that you are to bar yourselves in the room
+farthest from the wall, for the palace is about to be attacked.  You are
+not to venture outside in the garden, for fear the enemy may be within
+throwing distance with their spears."
+
+The Emir's officer only stayed till he was satisfied that his prisoners
+fully understood the message, and then hurried out, followed by his men,
+for the noise and excitement outside were increasing fast.  Trumpets
+were being blown, drums beaten, and there were all the sounds of a
+gathering force.
+
+"What does all this mean?" asked the doctor.
+
+"I hardly know, O Hakim," replied the Sheikh, who was gradually
+recovering his breath, "It is some jealous quarrel between the Emirs,
+and they will mount and ride out to the nearest part of the desert to
+gallop wildly here and there, firing guns, throwing spears, and shouting
+defiance at one another, till their horses and camels are tired out.
+Then they will ride back, blowing trumpets and beating drums again, with
+each chief riding by his standard, looking proud, and behaving as if he
+had gained a great victory."
+
+"Then it will be a kind of sham fight?" said Frank.
+
+"No, Ben Eddin; it will be quite real, but they will not do each other
+much mischief, because there is nothing to gain.  There is no spoil, and
+besides, they are all bound to obey the new Mahdi, who has bidden them
+to be at peace till the Egyptian forces are driven into the Nile."
+
+"We are too late," said the Hakim grimly.
+
+"What!  Do you think our Emir will be conquered?" said the professor
+eagerly.
+
+"No, but there will be work for us to-night or to-morrow morning with
+the wounded.  Then how can we ask the Emir to let us go?"
+
+"The great Hakim is right," said the Sheikh.  "Hark!"
+
+He held up his hand, and plainly enough the reports of guns and the
+shouting of combatants reached their ears, the fighting having already
+commenced, and evidently within the city, though as they waited the
+sounds grew more distant.  But the dull trampling of unshod horses told
+of the passing of mounted men, and Ibrahim went out to join the guard at
+the gate, for he was in an intense state of excitement for fear there
+should be any demand made upon his camels, which were peaceably munching
+in the enclosure at the end of the house.
+
+Then came a couple of hours excited waiting for that which did not
+happen.  For at every rush of horsemen along the road outside, the
+prisoners felt that the expected attack had come, and again and again
+the Sheikh came in to reassure them by announcing that it was only a
+party of the Emir's own men, for the chief had driven his enemies out of
+the city to the plain where the engagement was going on, but had left a
+strong troop of mounted men to ride to and fro to guard his house in
+support of the little party who had charge of the guests.
+
+"The men think it will not be much, Excellencies, for another Emir is
+fighting for their chief, and they are too strong.  It is like a rising
+against those chosen by the Khalifa, but I cannot tell much as yet."
+
+But distant as the scene of the conflict was, the firing reached their
+ears till it was turning dusk, when it suddenly ceased, as if either one
+side was conquered or a mutually agreed cessation of hostilities had
+taken place.
+
+The first definite news of the state of affairs reached the Emir's
+palace just when a considerable lapse of time had occurred without news,
+the last being of a kind to create anxiety, the Sheikh coming in from
+the gate to announce that a messenger had arrived at a gallop to summon
+the troop of horse, who had gone off leaving their guard looking
+careworn and anxious, while he forbore to speak.
+
+And now the messenger who had suddenly galloped up to the entry, dashed
+in at once, flung his bridle to the Sheikh as he leapt down, and strode
+in to where the friends were anxiously waiting.  All started and glanced
+at the open window, where a glimpse could be obtained of Ibrahim, to
+whom and his camels every thought was turned, as, without
+intercommunication, the same thought prevailed--flight, and would there
+be time to obtain their camels and make for the open desert before the
+victorious enemy arrived?
+
+For the messenger, who came looking wild and excited, his flowing white
+garment covered with blood and dust, was the Hakim's last patient--the
+Emir's son.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER TWENTY SEVEN.
+
+ANOTHER PATIENT.
+
+The young Baggara chief was evidently in a wild state of excitement, and
+turned at once to the professor, saying something in his own tongue,
+which the Englishman struggled hard but failed, in spite of his slight
+knowledge of the Baggara dialect, fully to grasp.
+
+"I can't make him out," said the professor excitedly.  "It is something
+about a terrible battle and defeat."
+
+"He means us to escape for our lives," said the doctor excitedly.  "Yes,
+look," he continued, for the young chief pointed to the window, nodded
+to the speaker, and hurried away.
+
+"Quick!" said the professor; "stop for nothing.  We must get to the
+camels, and take our chances."
+
+As he spoke the young chief dashed in again, followed by the Sheikh, the
+panting horse having been handed over to one of the guard; and this time
+the young man crossed to Frank, laid his left hand upon the young man's
+shoulder, smiling proudly, and waving his right hand in the air as if
+cutting with his sword.
+
+"The Emir's son bears the news, Excellencies, that there has been a
+great battle, and that his father and his friends have routed the
+rebellious ones, who have taken to flight, leaving many killed and
+wounded, and among these there is the Emir's greatest friend.  He has
+been shot by a gun and is dying, but the Emir bids you be ready to bring
+him back to life, for he is like a brother and saved him from his
+treacherous foes."
+
+"That's a modest demand for one evening, Robert, my son," said the
+professor, with a quaintly humorous look.  "How do you feel?"
+
+"As if I had been raising the expectations of these people till the time
+had come for their hopes to be dashed."
+
+While he was speaking the triumphant blowing of trumpets and discordant
+beating of drums, heard faintly upon the evening air, announced the
+return of the victorious forces from what had doubtless been nothing
+much more serious than a slight skirmish.  But it was serious enough for
+the friends.
+
+"What is to be done?" said the professor.  "We shall have to go to the
+dying man's place."
+
+The Sheikh heard what was said, and turned to question the young chief
+at once.
+
+"No, Excellencies," he said; "the Emir is having his brother chief borne
+to his own house.  He will be brought to the palace here, and will not
+be long."
+
+"Very well," said the Hakim gravely; "I will do my best.  The
+instruments, Ben Eddin," he continued, "and what is necessary."
+
+Sam was already at the door, and Frank joined him, to prepare all that
+would be required, while the young chief looked on, eager and smiling,
+but standing aloof from the Hakim as if in perfect confidence as to the
+result, but feeling a superstitious dread of his power.
+
+There was an interval of waiting then, with the sound of the instruments
+preceding the triumphant warriors coming nearer and nearer, till all at
+once the young chief nodded smilingly to Frank, said a few words to the
+Sheikh, and hurried out.
+
+"What does that mean?" said the professor.
+
+"He has gone to see how the chief is and will come to see you as soon as
+they have brought him in.  He says--"
+
+The Sheikh stopped short, and looked from one to the other as if
+perplexed.
+
+"What does he say?" asked the doctor sternly.
+
+"He said, O Hakim," replied the Sheikh humbly, "that he hoped his
+father's friend and brother was dead."
+
+"He said that!  Why?  Is this an enemy?"
+
+"No, Excellency; it is because others of the chief men and their doctors
+do not believe in you, and he wants to show them how great you are."
+
+The professor uttered a groan and glanced in a horrified way at his old
+friend, who sat now on a rug, looking perfectly calm in what seemed to
+be an emergency.
+
+"There is nothing to mind," he said.  "The young man is superstitious
+and ignorant, but his father is wise and our friend.  Let us hope that
+the chief is not dead; but gun-shot wounds are more to be dreaded than a
+gash from a knife or spear.  Be perfectly calm, both of you; there is
+nothing to mind."
+
+"Of course not," said the professor, recovering himself now.  "I was
+startled for the moment by that false alarm.  No, there is nothing to
+mind, even if the other chiefs are sceptical.  You have knowledge enough
+to win their respect."
+
+Further conversation was put an end to by the coming of the Emir
+himself, with his son, who entered, hot and covered with dust, to say a
+few words to the Sheikh, who bowed humbly to hear them.
+
+"The Emir bids me ask you to come and save his friend, O Hakim, but he
+fears that it is too late."
+
+The doctor rose at once, signed to his followers, and then motioned to
+the Emir to lead on.
+
+He drew back, however, and said a few words to his son, who led off at
+once, while the father walked quite humbly behind the great man to whom
+he owed his life.
+
+Frank glanced wonderingly round as the little procession passed out into
+a kind of hall whose floor was covered with Eastern rugs, and in which
+were grouped about some fifty armed men, who showed plenty of grim signs
+of having been in a serious fray.  Then onward through a couple of rooms
+handsomely draped with curtains which gave them the appearance of tents,
+and into a much larger apartment, upon a broad divan in which, dimly
+shown by a couple of brass lamps, lay the insensible figure of a
+stalwart Baggara, the blackest they had yet seen, his glistening skin
+showing strangely in contrast with the white folds turned back from his
+broad chest, and hideously stained with blood.
+
+As the party entered several women held their head-cloths to their faces
+and stole silently out, leaving none there but three grim-looking
+Mullahs, who had evidently been playing the parts of surgeons to the
+injured Emir, and who scowled angrily at the little party that now
+entered the room.  Standing silently afterwards with their hands upon
+their breasts they gazed through their half-closed eyes as if
+contemptuously waiting to hear what this infidel Hakim would say.
+
+It was a crucial position for the doctor, but he played his part with
+the greatest dignity, while the Emir stood near as if in perfect
+confidence as to his friend's powers, and the son glanced at Frank with
+a malicious look in his dark eyes, which he turned directly
+half-mockingly at the Mullahs.
+
+The Hakim bowed haughtily to his Soudanese _confreres_, and then turned
+to the Sheikh.
+
+"Stand on my left hand, a little back," he said, "ready to interpret."
+
+The Sheikh bowed reverently and took his place, while to Frank the scene
+in the gloomy, tent-like room resembled some great picture of Eastern
+life that he had once seen.
+
+Then throwing back the long white sleeves of his robe the Hakim bent
+down over the patient, and with rapid touches of his white hands as if
+he were performing some incantation--so it struck the lookers-on, though
+it was only the _tactus eruditus_ of the skilled surgeon--he soon
+satisfied himself that his patient lived, and of the injury which had
+laid the strong man low.
+
+Frank was ready with all he required, water, sponge, towels, lint, and
+probe, while the professor carried bottle, graduated glass, and a pocket
+filter slung at his side, furnished with a syphon-like tap.
+
+The silence was strangely oppressive during those few minutes, and as he
+examined his patient the Hakim gave aloud the results of his
+examination, as if speaking expressly for the professor's ear alone.
+
+"Not dead," he said, "and he has not lost much blood.  A very serious
+wound, and the bullet without doubt there.  Quite beyond my reach.  No:
+it has not passed through.  I dare probe no more to-night.  I must wait
+for the daylight, and give him some hours to recover a little from the
+shock."
+
+Meanwhile the Emir was anxiously watching the Hakim's actions, and when
+at last he saw him plug the wound with medicated lint, and then take the
+bandage offered by Frank, he drew a sigh of relief, grasping the fact
+that the Hakim would not bind up the injury of one who had passed away.
+
+The Hakim then raised his head a little and turned to the Sheikh.
+
+"Tell the Emir," he said, "that his friend has received a very dangerous
+wound, but that I hope he will live."
+
+These words were translated to the chief, but in his interpretation the
+old Arab omitted the hopeful clause, and said definitely that the
+wounded man would recover.
+
+In an instant one of the Mullahs said scornfully--
+
+"The infidel Frank lies unto you, Emir.  Thy friend is wounded unto
+death.  See, even now he dies."
+
+"The great Hakim never lies," said the Sheikh proudly.  "The Emir will
+wait and see that the Hakim's words are true."
+
+"Yes," said the Emir sternly.  "We will wait."
+
+Frank was standing back with his head humbly now in the shadow, holding
+some of the Hakim's paraphernalia, but with watchful eyes fixed upon the
+three Mullahs, and as the Emir spoke he noticed a quick, meaning glance
+pass from one to the other which struck him as full of malice and
+cunning.  A thought instantly shot through him which chilled him for a
+moment.  That look meant evil, he was sure.  Something malevolent
+against the Frankish doctor who dared to intrude upon the ignorance and
+superstition of a trio of Mahometan priests.  What would they do?
+
+Frank's thoughts came like flashes of mental light, and in an instant he
+felt that they dared not interfere with the Hakim who was so strongly in
+favour with the great Emir, but in an underhanded way they might bring
+all he had done to naught and contrive that the wounded, helpless man's
+last chance of life should fail.
+
+The idea was horrible, but he knew for certain that in their vile
+bigotry the followers of Mahomet would stop at nothing in their efforts
+to destroy the so-called infidel, and with his pulses beginning to beat
+fast in his excitement he planned how he could counteract any of the
+machinations these people might set going.
+
+For the more he thought the more convinced he felt that he was not
+misjudging these people.  His memory brought up things that the old
+Sheikh had said about the jealousy the great Hakim had excited, and
+naturally enough; but what was to be done?
+
+The first thing, he felt, must be to warn the doctor.  But how?  He
+could not speak till they were alone.  Even if he attempted to whisper
+to the professor, who was close at hand, it would be observed, for he
+would betray himself as an impostor, and in betraying himself he would
+raise suspicion against his companions.
+
+Those were painful moments, and he shivered and longed for the scene to
+come to an end, for his utter helplessness seemed to overwhelm him, and
+he felt ready to ask why he had placed himself in so terrible a
+position.
+
+Then he uttered a faint sigh of relief, for the professor reverently
+approached his friend and whispered a question, to which the Hakim, who
+stood over his patient, watch in one hand, the fingers of the other
+holding the insensible man's wrist, carefully counting the pulsations,
+replied by a grave bend of the head.
+
+The professor drew back and whispered to his fellow-assistant to prepare
+to go, while for his own part he took the bottle, water, and glasses to
+the Hakim, and once more stood waiting, while Frank carefully folded up
+lint and bandage, and replaced the instruments in their cases.
+
+But the Hakim did not stir, and in the midst of the impressive silence
+he stood there bare-headed with the light of the lamps above falling
+upon the deep lines in his broad, white forehead and knit brows,
+carefully marking the pulsations, the three Mullahs still standing with
+folded arms, as motionless as statues, and their eyes nearly closed; but
+there was a keen flash now and then through the lids as they kept an
+eager watch upon everything that was going on.
+
+At last the Hakim softly lowered the wounded chiefs hand and replaced
+his watch, turning slightly to the professor, who took a step towards
+him and held out bottle and glass, when a few drops from the former were
+carefully measured out, a little water from the filter added, and then
+the clear limpid medicament was slowly and carefully trickled between
+the sufferer's lips till all had passed.
+
+At that moment there was a faint rustling behind a great curtain which
+draped an opening in the darkest part of the sombre room, and directly
+after a small, dark hand appeared and was waved to and fro.
+
+Frank, in his watchfulness, saw everything.  It was evidently the hand
+of one of the women who had glided out when his party entered--in all
+probability that of the favourite wife.
+
+The young Emir saw it too, for he turned a questioning face to his
+father, who bowed his head, and the young man stepped silently across to
+the curtain, drew it a little aside, and stood whispering answers to the
+eager questions which were asked.
+
+"The women!" thought Frank, who was ready to snatch at any straw.  If he
+could only speak to Morris he would order that they should stay and keep
+watch by the sufferer's side all night, and so baffle any nefarious
+attempt that might be made.
+
+Then with a hopeful feeling arising in his breast Frank went slowly on
+with his task, which he could have finished at any moment, and waited
+for his opportunity, while, as if satisfied with the report, the
+inquirer drew back, a weary sigh sounding plainly out of the darkness,
+the curtain fell back into its former folds, and the young Emir returned
+to his father's side.
+
+By this time the administering of the sedative was ended, the professor
+had withdrawn with the bottle and glass, and the Hakim once more took
+hold of the sufferer's swarthy wrist, to remain counting the pulsations
+for many minutes, before laying the hand gently down and rising to
+stand, with folded arms, gazing at the stern, dark, immovable face.
+
+"Waiting.  How long will he wait?" thought Frank, and his mental
+question was being asked by the three Mullahs who still stood like so
+many statues.
+
+Quite a quarter of an hour passed, and then the Hakim slowly turned his
+head and looked at the Sheikh, who bent his head to attention, and a
+thrill ran through Frank as he heard that all his anxieties were
+certainly for the moment at an end, for the doctor said quietly, "Tell
+his Highness the Emir that his friend is in too dangerous a state to be
+left."
+
+The Sheikh interpreted the words, and received in reply the Emir's words
+that the women of his household and the wounded man's own wife would
+watch by his side all night.
+
+"That is good, Ibrahim," replied the Hakim, "but their time is not yet.
+Tell the Emir that I and my people will keep watch till it is safe to
+leave him."
+
+The Emir drew a deep breath indicative of his satisfaction as he heard
+the Hakim's words, and then crossing to him he reverently took his hand,
+bent over it, and drew back, said a word or two to his son, who went to
+the three Mullahs and repeated his father's message, with the result
+that they whispered together for a few moments and then raised their
+heads haughtily and stalked slowly out of the tent-like room.
+
+The Emir then nodded shortly to his son, who, as he followed the
+Mullah's example, turned out of his way to go close to Frank and pat his
+shoulder warmly, as if to commend him for all that had been done.
+
+The next minute the Emir whispered again to Ibrahim, speaking earnestly,
+and bending reverently once more to the Hakim, he crossed to the curtain
+and passed behind it, the low sobbing of a woman being heard directly
+after.  Then all was silent as the grave.
+
+"Yes, Ibrahim, what is it?" said the doctor, for the Sheikh was waiting
+to speak.
+
+"The Emir bids me say, O Hakim, that you will please consider his house
+your own, and order his servants to bring everything you desire.  That
+he will have refreshing foods and drinks placed in the room through
+which we came, and divans and rugs are there for those who would rest.
+That three women of the household will be waiting all night with his
+friend's wife in the room beyond the curtains there.  That if you find
+the danger increases and his friend the Emir is about to die, you will
+send me to the women with the sad tidings, that he and they may come to
+the wounded man's side.  That he thanks, and prays for your success in
+bringing his friend back to life.  That is all."
+
+"Then he does not expect me to perform miracles--to do impossibilities,
+Ibrahim?" said the doctor quietly.
+
+"No, Excellency," replied the Sheikh.  "The Emir is a half-savage chief,
+but if he had been born in Cairo and lived amongst the English and the
+French he would have been great.  He is wise.  He says little, but he
+laughs in his heart at the fables of the Mullahs."
+
+"Then he is too sensible to take me for a prophet."
+
+"Oh, yes, Excellency; he thinks as I do, that you are a great physician,
+learned in all the wisdom of the Franks.  He is a wise man, but his son
+is what you English call a fool.  But will the Emir's friend live?  His
+Excellency can trust me."
+
+"It is very doubtful, Ibrahim," said the doctor gravely.  "There is a
+bullet lodged in a very dangerous part, and I fear that everything
+depends upon its being extracted before bad symptoms arise."
+
+"But the learned Hakim can do all those wonders I have seen, and cuts
+and sews, and the people grow well and strong."
+
+"Yes, Ibrahim, sometimes," said the doctor, with a sad smile; "but not
+when the bullet, sword, or spear has done too much.  The Emir's friend
+is very bad, and if we had left to-night and these native doctors had
+stayed, he would never have seen the light of another day; for his life
+hangs upon a thread that I am going to watch and strengthen lest it
+should break."
+
+"Your Excellency is wiser in my eyes everyday I live," said the old man
+softly.  "Yes, he is right; if you had left here to-night the chief
+would have died."
+
+"What do you mean, Ibrahim?" whispered the professor.
+
+"Your Excellency knows," replied the old man quietly.  "For one thing,
+they would not have the wisdom to do what is right.  For another thing,
+Excellency, they are jealous with the jealousy of ignorant,
+superstitious believers in false doctrines."
+
+The professor looked at the Sheikh searchingly.
+
+"I thought I knew you thoroughly, Ibrahim," he said at last; "but I find
+you are a wiser man than I thought."
+
+"No, Excellency," said the old man sadly; "I have only tried to be wise;
+and in a long life mixing a great deal with the people from the West I
+have learned far more than my people could ever know; but what is it?"
+he said, holding out his hollowed hand as if it contained something.
+"So little; and there is so much to know."
+
+"Yes," said the doctor slowly, "so much to know, Ibrahim, and life seems
+so short.  I would give even some of that for the greater power of
+healing that would enable me to say, This man will live."
+
+
+
+CHAPTER TWENTY EIGHT.
+
+A SCIENTIFIC MARVEL.
+
+The day broke at last, after a long and watchful night of silence,
+during which the Hakim had never left his patient's side, but he had
+insisted upon his companions taking watch and watch.
+
+The patient had not stirred, but lain as motionless as if already dead,
+apparently free from all suffering, and displaying symptoms which made
+the lines grow deeper in the doctor's brow.
+
+Twice over during the night a slight rustling of a curtain had startled
+the watchers, and thoughts of treachery had arisen; but in each case the
+rustling was succeeded by a weary sigh, and there was silence once more.
+
+The daylight which turned the lamp-rays pale was stealing in at the
+narrow window, when there was a louder rustle of the curtain, and the
+Emir entered, to find the Hakim bending over his friend, with Frank
+kneeling a short distance away.
+
+The chief glanced round for the interpreter, and then went to the door
+leading into the next room, to draw back directly, for the Sheikh and
+Landon were lying upon divans, asleep.
+
+The Emir nodded, and went straight to the Hakim, pointing down at the
+patient, questioning him with his eyes.
+
+"Yes," said the doctor, bowing his head; "he lives still, but I am
+afraid."
+
+The Emir seemed to grasp his meaning, and to enforce it Morris took the
+chiefs hand and separating his fingers, placed two upon the wounded
+man's pulse.
+
+There was a faint beating going on, and without another sign the Emir
+crossed to the curtain and passed out.
+
+The sun rose soon after, and filled the gloomy room with cheery light;
+but the hard, drawn countenance of the wounded man suggested that
+dissolution could not be far distant; and when a few minutes later the
+professor and the Sheikh came in, refreshed by a couple of hours' rest,
+the doctor, spoke in a low voice--
+
+"Help me," he said; "I must make another examination at all risks;" and
+busy minutes followed, during which the probe was used, and used in
+vain.
+
+"He will sink in a few hours in spite of all I can do," said the doctor.
+"If I could trace that bullet there might be a chance, and I will try;
+but everything is against him here."
+
+"What do you mean to do?" asked the professor.
+
+The Hakim was silent, standing leaning over his patient, deep in
+thought, while his friends waited patiently for him to speak.
+
+It was no longer the calm, easy-going companion now, but the earnest
+student of the human frame, straining every mental fibre to the
+encounter in this emergency.
+
+A minute later he had turned to Frank, and spoke to him earnestly, with
+the result that the young man shook his head.
+
+"Yes, I know," said the doctor; "you are unprepared; the difficulties
+seem out here insuperable; but a man's life is at stake, so is our
+reputation amongst these people, for one failure will balance a hundred
+cures, just as at home one evil deed stands out strongly against so many
+good which pass unnoticed.  It is barely possible, but we must try."
+
+Frank stood for a few moments thinking, and then turned his eyes upon
+those of his friend.
+
+"Think, my dear boy," said the latter; "it may be a step nearer to
+finding Hal."
+
+Frank still remained silent.  He needed no such stimulus as that,
+though; he was only shrinking for fear that he would fail in his part of
+the experiment that was to be tried.
+
+At last his face lit-up, and signing to the professor and the Sheikh to
+follow him he hurried back to their part of the palace, where a leathern
+case that had travelled so far on the big camel, and remained unopened,
+was rapidly unstrapped, and one by one the carefully packed portions of
+some new scientific apparatus were undone and arranged upon one of the
+rugs placed for the purpose.
+
+Frank worked hard, and the professor aided him with all the energy he
+could throw into the task, first one and then the other uttering a word
+or two of satisfaction to find that everything was intact.
+
+"Is this the apparatus with which you experimented at your place?" said
+the professor.
+
+They were alone, and Frank answered in a low tone full of excitement--
+
+"Yes," he said; "again and again with perfect success."
+
+"But you are nervous about it now?"
+
+"Yes, there seems to be so much at stake.  Suppose we fail?"
+
+"The best thing Lytton ever wrote, Frank, lad," said the professor: "`In
+the bright Lexicon of youth, there is no such word as fail.'"
+
+"Then you would try?" whispered Frank.
+
+"Try?  Yes, and succeed, my lad.  Why should you not?"
+
+"I don't know," sighed the young man, "unless I dread that anything
+should go wrong, for Morris's sake."
+
+"And he would be sorry for yours.  There, work.  Everything seems right:
+battery, wires, vacuum tubes--all looking new and perfect."
+
+"Yes," said Frank, whose voice trembled a little; "but if we could put
+the experiment off for a while, so as to test it first."
+
+"It might be wiser, but while we are trying the apparatus that man's
+life may ebb away."
+
+"Then you would not wait?"
+
+"No.  Test it upon the patient.  It may save him."
+
+Taking heart as he fully grasped the need for immediate action, Frank
+toiled away till he was able to say that he was ready, the Sheikh
+looking on in silent wonder and admiration the while.
+
+Before the manipulator of the wondrous adaptation was ready he said a
+word or two to the Sheikh, who hurried out and returned with a couple of
+his young men, and then in solemn silence and with great care the
+apparatus was carried as if in procession to the great tent-like
+sick-chamber, where at the first glance Frank's eyes rested upon the
+three Mullahs, who had returned during his absence, and once more stood
+together silent and scornful, gazing down at the Emir's friend, the
+pulsations of whose arteries the Hakim was still feeling, while the Emir
+and his son stood hard by watching and waiting for the end.
+
+No word was spoken.  The Hakim turned and ran his eyes over the
+apparatus that was brought in and rapidly placed in position, wires
+connected to the battery, and after rapid preparation everything was at
+last announced by the professor as being ready, while Frank's black face
+glistened with perspiration as he looked firmly now at his brother's old
+friend, who questioned him with a look, and received a quick nod in
+reply.
+
+All this while the three Mullahs looked on as such men would--old
+practitioners in fraud and deceit, dealing with the ignorant
+superstitions of their tribes--their swarthy faces darkening in
+contempt, treating it all as a piece of jugglery on the part of a
+Frankish pretender to infinite power.
+
+But on the other hand the faces of the Emir and his son were full of
+wonder as well as faith, knowing so well as they did the great wisdom
+and skill of the man who had saved their lives.
+
+"Now," said the Hakim slowly and gravely, "help me, Frederick, my son.
+I have probed again for the bullet, and know where it must lie.  You and
+Ibrahim must carefully turn him half upon his face."
+
+This was quickly done, and a thrill ran quivering through the Emir as he
+saw the Hakim take out a keen knife from the case that hung from his
+girdle, and with a quick movement divide the white garment the patient
+wore from neck to waist, laying bare the muscular back and side, and as
+quickly laying the soft white cotton fabric apart.  "Now," said the
+Hakim, "tell the Emir that the thick curtains must be lowered over that
+window and all the light shut out.  That done, whatever takes place no
+one must move or speak."
+
+The words were firmly and solemnly uttered, and the place lending itself
+well to the purpose, the heavy rug-like curtains were allowed to fall
+over the window, the Emir and his son both helping, and then stopping in
+amaze by the drapery as for a few moments the chamber was in total
+darkness.
+
+Then a strange, hissing noise arose, and heavy, startled breathing was
+heard, while the faces of all present were illumined by the dazzling
+flashes of light which began to play in a cylinder of glass.
+
+Nothing could have been more startling to one strange to the wonders of
+science, for the scene was horrible and weird, suggestive to the
+Baggara--chiefs and Mullahs--of magic in its most awful guise.  For as
+they stood spellbound there by the strange light which played about as
+if some hissing, fiery dragon were flickering its lambent tongue in and
+out of its glistening jaws, not only were the faces and busy hands of
+the Hakim and his assistants seen moving rapidly, but directly after
+there, in a faint glare, was the bare torso of the dying Emir.
+
+Then, heard above the hissing of the electricity the Hakim's voice was
+heard, and all eyes were turned to him as the flashes of light
+brightened his stern, firm face.
+
+"Ibrahim," he said, "bid the Emir come here to my side."
+
+The order was interpreted, and firmly and without a moment's hesitation,
+the swarthy chief walked close up to the divan, noting as he did so that
+the flashes of light in the cylinder glanced from the keen knife which
+the Hakim held.
+
+"Now," said the latter calmly, "tell him that as a last effort I am
+about to try and find where the bullet which is slaying his friend is
+lying."
+
+The Sheikh's voice trembled a little as he spoke, but he interpreted the
+words clearly, and the Emir said softly--
+
+"The Hakim is wise and great."
+
+"_Now_!" said the doctor sharply, and wonder of wonders! the upper
+portion of the wounded man's flank was seen to become transparent, the
+muscular portions to dissolve in a soft, dull light, leaving the bones
+weirdly plain as if he had long passed away, and the awe-stricken
+beholders were gazing upon the skeleton remains; while most horrible of
+all, amidst the low murmur of dread which arose from the Mullahs and
+Ibrahim, a skeleton hand suddenly darted out, holding a knife and
+pointed to a small, round, black spot close to the dark backbone.
+
+"Enough!" said the Hakim loudly.  "Quick, the light!"
+
+No legendary Eastern magic ever expressed one-half the marvels of that
+scene.  One moment the electricity was hissing and the bright flashes
+playing about, giving ghastly effects to the faces of all, as, wild with
+horror, they gazed at the dull, black skeleton and the horrible pointing
+hand; the next the hissing had ceased, the vision had died out, and then
+there was a rustling noise as the curtain was torn away and the Hakim
+was seen in the bright sunlight, bending over the prostrate man.
+
+A quick movement or two followed, the knife was thrown down and
+instruments used, and the Hakim said shortly--
+
+"Water--sponge."
+
+The professor had only to take a step, and then with a rapidity that was
+almost marvellous the marks of blood had been removed, a little lint and
+a bandage applied, and the Hakim was pointing to a large bullet, that
+which had nearly passed through the wounded man without touching a vital
+place.
+
+"It is great," said the Emir simply, as he took up the globe of lead,
+and then turned to the Sheikh.
+
+"Ask the great Hakim if now my friend will live.  No, ask not," he said.
+"I know."
+
+Then a peculiar smile of contempt played about his stern face as he
+stood watching the three Mullahs, who, with bended heads, were slowly
+passing to the door and leaving the room without a word.
+
+The Hakim did not even turn his head to look after them, but glanced at
+Frank and the professor, who were rapidly disconnecting wires and
+placing the apparatus ready for sending back to their quarters.  Then
+feeling what the Emir must have said, he looked him full in the eyes and
+said in plain English--
+
+"I think your friend will recover now, Emir.  Go and tell those who love
+him what I say."
+
+Then turning to the Sheikh the old man gravely interpreted the words,
+and the Emir caught at and kissed the Hakim's hand, before hurrying out,
+followed by his son.
+
+"Bravo, Ben Eddin!" said the professor excitedly.  "Here, Ibrahim, fetch
+in your men to carry these things back to our rooms."
+
+"Yes, Excellency," said the old man quietly; "but truly the Hakim is
+great.  Tell me, is this magic--I have long thought all that we have
+been taught was childish tales, but after what I have seen--"
+
+"Believe as you did before, Ibrahim," said the doctor gravely, as he
+laid his hand upon the old man's shoulder; "there is no magic, but the
+wonders of Nature are greater far.  This is only another of the
+discoveries of science.  You have heard at Cairo the voices come along
+the wire?"
+
+"Yes, Excellency, and the machine that speaks."
+
+"Yes, and this is another of the marvels we have learned."
+
+"But they will believe it is magic," said the old man.
+
+"Well, let them," said the Hakim calmly.  "Now, quick, and get all this
+away.  My patient must have perfect quiet if he is to live."
+
+"Thank you, Frank, boy," said the doctor, as soon as the Sheikh had left
+the room.  "You managed everything to perfection.  I little thought I
+should have to operate out here with the Rontgen rays."
+
+
+
+CHAPTER TWENTY NINE.
+
+FRANK'S FRIEND.
+
+"The young Emir wants you to go out with him, Excellency," said Ibrahim
+the same day, towards evening.
+
+Frank stared, and not feeling safe, remained silent, but the professor
+spoke for him.
+
+"Wants him to go out?  What for?"
+
+"It is out of friendly feeling, Excellency," replied the Sheikh.  "They
+are much of an age, and the young Emir says that Ben Eddin is
+wonderful."
+
+"But it is so strange," said the professor; "the one is a chief, and the
+other a slave."
+
+"Yes, Excellency, but Ben Eddin is not a white, and he can be friends
+with him."
+
+"I suppose it means friendliness, Frank, and if you refuse it will give
+offence.  Ah, here's the Hakim.  How is your patient?"
+
+"Calming down into a natural sleep, and certainly better."
+
+The professor told him of the young Emir's message, and the Hakim looked
+grave.
+
+"We cannot refuse," he said, "and it may mean a fresh opportunity for
+getting new.  You must go, Frank."
+
+After the first surprise the latter felt all eagerness, for the reason
+expressed by his friend, and going out into the garden he found the
+young Emir impatiently waiting for him, and ready to greet him with a
+warmth which showed that the object was friendly in the extreme, but he
+stopped short, frowning and pointing to the young man's side.
+
+For a few minutes Frank looked at him in a puzzled way, for his words
+were perfectly unintelligible, till signs were made, the young Emir
+touching his belt, sword, and dagger, and then pointing to the house.
+
+After the gift that had been made a short time before there could be no
+mistaking the meaning, and Frank went back to his room, took down the
+sword, dagger, and belt from the wall, and walked back fastening them
+on.
+
+The young Emir's face lit-up with a boyish look of pleasure, and he
+stood looking at the young Englishman for a few moments before making a
+sign to him and hurrying off into the building, to return with a fine
+white cotton robe, which he threw over Frank's shoulders, and then
+stepped back to look at him with satisfaction, before catching him by
+the arm and leading him to the gate, where Frank fully expected to see
+camels waiting for them.
+
+To his surprise two of the Baggara were standing there with the guards
+holding a couple of fiery Arabian horses, and the young Emir signed to
+Frank to mount, setting the example by springing up with all the
+activity of one used from childhood to the saddle.
+
+"Takes it for granted that I can ride," said Frank to himself, and he
+stepped up to the beautiful animal, glanced at bit and reins, and then
+examined the stirrups, which were after the fashion of those used by
+Arab horsemen, far too short for an Englishman's style of riding.
+
+He made signs to the man who held the horse, pointing to the stirrup
+leathers, but in vain, till he began to alter them himself, when the
+second man grasped what was wanted, and smiling rather contemptuously,
+made the alteration.
+
+Frank was modest enough in his self-estimation, and as he saw the
+restless movements of the beautiful little highly bred creature his
+first thought was, "I hope I shall not be thrown."  For his experience
+of riding was connected with ordinary, tamely disposed English hacks and
+cobs, and his opportunities had been infrequent.  Still he had been
+taught, and as soon as the stirrups were properly adjusted he took the
+reins, checked with a touch on the off side the horse's disposition to
+edge away, and mounted, the beautiful animal making a quick bound as
+soon as its new rider was in the saddle.
+
+But Frank was not unseated, and to his great delight he found his
+steed's motions easy in the extreme, as it ambled along by its
+companion's side, while to the young man's profound satisfaction his new
+friend led him in quite a fresh direction to any in which he had
+previously been.
+
+They were in a far more important part of the city, passing better
+houses, some with fair gardens; palm and mimosa trees overtopped walls.
+Here and there the houses had rough balconies, and he caught a glimpse
+of the Mahdi's tomb, a white-topped domed building looking like a
+gigantic egg set on end, with four small ones to form corners, some
+attempt at ornamentation, and for apex what appeared to be a great
+gilded spear thrust through a couple of brass balls.
+
+To his great surprise they passed a busy marketplace and rough-looking
+shops, the dwellings of traders and makers of horse trappings and camel
+saddles; others displayed cotton fabrics, some even with ornamentations
+of silk; then makers of brass work, swords, and spears with the round
+shields carried by so many of the fighting men; and as they rode on
+through crowds of busy people he found that his companion was evidently
+noting his surprise and ready to smile with satisfaction at the interest
+he displayed.
+
+In his other excursions he and his companions had been the observed of
+all, and at every turn those they passed had turned to gaze, generally
+with scowls, at them and their protecting guard, and he had often felt
+that it was to the latter that they owed their safety.  But now it was
+different: his black face and the company he was in made him seem one of
+the people, so that his appearance caused no surprise, and he was able
+to ride on perfectly unnoticed by the common folk and the many armed,
+overbearing, mounted and pacing warriors they passed.
+
+It was a novel and a wonderfully interesting scene as he hastily noticed
+how plain it was that he was riding through a conquered city in which
+the tribes from far south were displaying at every turn their contempt
+for and insolence to the humbled people they had mastered, and over whom
+they ruled by the sword and spear.  He noted, too, the difference in
+type of feature, darkness of skin, and dress, between the various
+tribes, all of whom, however, were at one in their bullying aspect and
+overbearing way towards the humbled natives among whom they had taken up
+their residence; and hence it was that for the time being Frank had it
+forced upon him by the servile actions and harried ways of the men who
+stepped aside to let him and his companion pass, that he was looked upon
+as a member of one of the conquering race--one of the feared, instead of
+the contemned.
+
+Frank's spirits rose as they rode on past rough bazaar and well built
+house, and the disappointment he had felt at the sudden check to their
+plans of obtaining permission to proceed to Khartoum died quite away.
+For he learned in this change of position that the city had not half
+been searched, and as his eyes wandered here and there it was with the
+feeling that at any minute he might come upon the face he so eagerly
+sought, while in spite of a feeling of shrinking repugnance to his
+companion he began to realise how valuable a kind of friendship between
+them might prove, especially if their intercourse meant a freedom in
+traversing the city unencumbered by their guards.
+
+It became more and more evident as they rode on, and his manifest
+pleasure and excited interest in all he saw about the place was noted,
+that the young Emir was perfectly satisfied, and grasping how he
+examined the better homes, paused from time to time for him to notice
+the houses and gardens they passed, and the servants and slaves of their
+occupants.
+
+"It is just out of friendliness," thought Frank, "a return for my
+nursing when he was in a dying state.  Everyone has some form of
+gratitude in him.  Would it be possible to find poor Hal, and then
+appeal to the Emir and his son to let us buy the prisoner and take him
+away?"
+
+Frank's heart sank again directly, for he felt that it was improbable in
+the extreme.  They were nothing better than prisoners themselves, and
+the most to be expected would be that his brother's slavery might be
+ameliorated by a change of masters.
+
+"Better that than how he is," thought the young man at last, "for the
+Emir undoubtedly respects us, and that last experiment must have raised
+us all wonderfully in his eyes."
+
+He was thinking of this as he passed one of the best houses he had
+seen--a place where, in a rough courtyard, armed men were grouped with
+their camels and horses.  There was a great covered well in the centre,
+with dejected-looking men busy drawing water, and through the open
+windows of the low terraced house he had glimpses of the turbaned,
+white-robed occupants.
+
+The place interested Frank for reasons he could not have explained, and
+he would gladly have sat watching what was going on; but it was
+evidently the dwelling of some powerful dervish Emir, and his companion
+rode up to one of the armed men seated upon a slightly built,
+swift-looking camel.  Their colloquy was very brief, and the young Emir
+turned to him, said something, and pressing his horse's sides galloped
+onwards towards a wide opening, the steed Frank rode keeping close to
+its fellow's side.
+
+A minute later the young Baggara drew bridle again in the middle of the
+opening, about which were several low buildings, and the place being
+without interest, save that there were several groups of fighting men
+about, and some slight scaffold-like suggestions of building being
+commenced, Frank's thoughts went back to the house they had passed, as
+he felt again that it must be the palace of some powerful chief among
+the conquerors, while the open space where they stood was the Soudanese
+idea of a yard for his followers.
+
+Then a sudden thought occurred to him, that it was the home of the
+Emir's wounded friend, and at once it had a fresh interest; but he had
+no time for further thought, for the young Baggara gave his hand a wave
+round, laughing the while in a peculiar way, and then pointed forward,
+urging his horse into a gallop, for there was an open, unencumbered road
+before them.
+
+Frank's beautiful steed needed no urging, but sprang forward on the
+instant, and their gallop was not checked till they were right out of
+the city and upon the open plain beyond, where their horses stretched
+out together like a leash of greyhounds, the young chief whooping and
+shouting with delight as he found that his companion rode easily and
+well, while he evidently enjoyed the invigorating rush through the air.
+
+At the end of three or four miles the horses were turned, and they
+ambled back then towards the widespreading, drab-looking city, the white
+dome of the tomb Frank had before noted standing up glistening and clear
+in the bright sunshine.
+
+And now Frank fully grasped how much more important a place Omdurman was
+than he had before imagined, and a feeling of satisfaction came over him
+at the thought that his ride out had not been for naught, and that it
+would have been unwise to have left the place even if they could have
+obtained permission.
+
+"If I could only understand what he says," thought Frank, for his
+companion was bright and excited now by the ride.  His ordinary sombre,
+half-sulky manner had passed off, and he chattered away volubly as they
+rode on, perfectly contented that his companion was silent, as he seemed
+to be explaining something and pointing away to their left over the
+plain.
+
+Frank was puzzled, but it did not seem to matter to the young Emir, who
+went on, evidently giving a vivid description of something, till Frank
+grasped all he meant like a flash, and rising in his stirrups he gazed
+hard in the pointed-out direction, to find endorsement of the idea that
+had flashed upon his brain.  For there, plainly enough seen through the
+clear air, and not half a mile away, were dots of white and grey and
+cream colour, with overhead scores and scores of birds sailing slowly
+here and there, and occasionally dipping down and disturbing others,
+which rose on sluggish wing.
+
+It was evidently the scene of the previous night's engagement, and with
+a look of fascinated horror in his eyes Frank gazed hard at his
+companion, who nodded eagerly, threw up his right hand to shake the
+flowing white robe clear, leaned a little on one side, and flashed out
+his keen sword.  Then drawing back his lips from his white teeth he
+uttered a fierce yell of "Allah!--Allah hu!" and increased their pace to
+a gallop, cutting and thrusting savagely the while at an imaginary enemy
+for a few minutes, before checking his horse again and bursting into a
+savage laugh of delight, as he let the reins fall upon his beautiful
+animal's neck, and taking up the skirt of his white robe made believe to
+wipe the blood from his glistening sword before returning it to its
+sheath.
+
+"And I'm to look at you in a friendly way and applaud you as a brave
+warrior, when I feel all the time that you are only a cruel butcher of
+your fellow-creatures," thought Frank.  "But I must not show it, for
+through you I may find poor old Hal, for he must be here after all, and
+I shall find him yet: I know I shall.  Why, who can say but what I may
+have ridden past the very house to-day where he is kept as a slave?"
+
+He meant something far different by the bright look of satisfaction
+which sparkled from his eyes, but the young Emir in his egotism took it
+to himself, and smiled and nodded as they rode gently on, Frank finding
+that they were retracing their steps towards the opening through which
+they had reached the plain, and a very short time after they were
+approaching the open, barrack-yard-like place, which now to his surprise
+was crowded with armed men, among whom were groups who could be nothing
+else but captives, for to his horror he saw that they were bound.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER THIRTY.
+
+WILD WARRIORS.
+
+Frank was puzzled for a few minutes; then he was convinced that the men
+he saw were prisoners taken in the previous night's encounter, for there
+was no doubt about their being members of a similar tribe.  The manner,
+too, of his companion endorsed the idea, as he spoke to him eagerly and
+pointed at first one and then another with a scowl of hatred and
+contempt, one of the nearest, to whom a few angry words were spoken,
+turning upon him with a haughty look full of proud disdain and contempt,
+which made the young Emir clap his hand to his sword and draw it from
+its sheath, as he urged his horse forward as if to cut down the
+prisoner, whose hands were securely tied behind him.
+
+The dervish, whose garments were stained with blood, did not so much as
+wince, but stood smiling at him with the same look of contempt, as if
+quite ready to meet his fate at the hands of his cowardly enemy, and in
+another minute the blow would have fallen, had not one of the mounted
+spectators shouted something which Frank, whose blood felt chilled,
+could not understand, and making his horse give a bound, interposed and
+laughingly warned the young chief back.
+
+It was quite enough; the young man nodded, lowered his sword, and
+thrusting it into its sheath, rode back to Frank.
+
+"And this is my new friend," thought the latter, as he strove hard to
+conceal the repugnance he felt by gazing straight before him; so that
+the change in his countenance passed unnoticed, the young Emir saying
+something merrily and laughing in a peculiar manner, as he gave his head
+a sidewise jerk in the direction of the prisoners.
+
+"Why am I brought here?" said Frank to himself, "and what are they going
+to do to these unfortunate wretches?"
+
+But he already knew, and a terrible feeling of dread made his heart
+contract as if it stood still; there was a strangling sensation at his
+throat which checked his breathing, and the crowd in the open space swam
+slowly round him, making him feel that in his giddiness he would the
+next minute fall off his horse.
+
+Then his heart began to throb violently, and an intense desire attacked
+him to press the beautiful creature he rode with his heels and gallop
+right away so as to hide the scene from his eyes.  But directly after
+the knowledge that he had so much at stake came in reaction, and he felt
+that happen what might he must sit there, not showing the slightest
+emotion, bearing everything, for no effort upon his part could alter the
+fate of prisoners taken in what was no doubt a revolt against superior
+authority, that authority being one of the most cruel and bloodthirsty
+rulers of a cruel and bloodthirsty race.
+
+"It is inevitable," he thought, and the words he had said rose to his
+mind, as he felt and knew from all he had heard about the new Mahdi's
+followers that if the fight had gone otherwise on the previous night the
+Emir's people who were prisoners would have met with a similar fate.
+
+"`All they that take the sword shall perish with the sword,'" he
+muttered, and then the power to stir seemed to have left him, as he sat
+cold and stony in his saddle to witness whatever might come.
+
+He was not long left in doubt.
+
+The prisoners were in three bodies, strongly guarded, each group by a
+couple of score or so of fierce-looking, well-armed men, some bearing
+round shields in one hand, three spears of different lengths in the
+other, while others wore swords only, hanging from a broad baldric, and
+looking with their cross hilts and long, straight blades very similar to
+those seen in illuminations and on effigies of the old crusaders, saving
+that the blade widened out a little towards the point, and narrowed
+again.
+
+The prisoners were all fine-looking young men, fierce and savage of
+aspect, and doubtless accustomed to deal out slaughter, torture, and
+horrible cruelties amongst the conquered people of the Soudan; but to
+Frank as he sat there the idea of their being slain before his eyes in
+cold blood half maddened him, filling him with an intense desire to be
+one of a retributive army whose task it would be to sweep their
+conquerors from the land and back into the wild districts from which
+they had flocked in response to the hoisting of the Mahdi's standard of
+war with its promise of blood, treasure, and slaves.
+
+"They are savages--savages," he muttered.  "Why do such wretches cumber
+the earth?"
+
+At that moment he felt the young Emir's hand upon his arm, and he
+started as if from some horrible nightmare to see the young man's
+smiling face before him, and followed the direction of his pointing
+hand.
+
+For the horrible scene which he had been brought to see as a pleasant
+sight, was the execution of some of the men who had risen against the
+Emir and his friend.
+
+It was a scene that, but for its truth and that it was but one of the
+many horrors of its kind which stained the domination of the Khalifa and
+his people, were better left unpenned--one of those which show the need
+for retributive justice and the strong hand of a power whose strength
+should at once crush down the vile rule of cruelty and crime against
+modern civilisation and peace.
+
+For as Frank's eyes followed the pointing hand it was to see that the
+wholesale murder of the prisoners had begun, and that the preparations
+he had supposed to be scaffolding for some fresh buildings were but part
+of the horror he was to witness.  Already ropes had been fastened round
+the necks of three of the miserable prisoners, who were drawn up hanging
+from a crossbeam; and as the crowds shouted in their triumph more and
+more were drawn up, till quite twenty were suspended, quivering for a
+brief time and then swinging slowly, becoming motionless and dead.
+
+Fascinated and helpless, Frank gazed, till a loud shouting drew his eyes
+to another group nearer to him, and there, bound and kneeling, with a
+spear-armed man in front and a dozen more behind, were some thirty of
+those who were never to look again upon the glory of the fast-sinking
+sun.
+
+But there was no struggling--no sign of resistance.  The prisoners knelt
+bare-headed, their faces proud and calm, and for the most part silent,
+save where here and there one turned smiling to his companion to right
+or left, as if to say a few words of encouragement, though for the most
+part they gazed straight before them at their guards, and in imagination
+it seemed to the young Englishman that they were bidding their enemies
+see how brave men dared to die.
+
+It was the hideous rule of the Mahdi and the sword, for as Frank looked,
+one who seemed to be an officer, in flowing white garments, rode forward
+from the young man's left, and, checking his horse close by the kneeling
+line, shouted an order.
+
+In an instant the swords of the men behind the prisoners gleamed in the
+afternoon sunshine, they drew back the white sleeves from their dark
+arms, and one by one, and in nearly every case at a single blow,
+following what seemed like a lightning flash, head after head dropped
+upon the sand, and the quivering bodies fell forward amidst the
+triumphant shouts of the crowds around.
+
+As the last head fell, the last body lay giving out the remnants of its
+life, Frank drew a hoarse breath of thankfulness and relief that all was
+over.
+
+It was too soon, for his companion touched him again, to point to the
+right, where a fresh horror was about to begin, and after watching once
+more the riding forward of the officer, and hearing him shout his order,
+the young Englishman closed his eyes, with the sickening sensation
+coming back, as he asked himself whether it was not some frightful
+dream; and with this thought he opened his eyes again that he might be
+sure.
+
+But it was too true, for there was another score of prisoners who were
+mercifully spared from death, but were to suffer the new Mahdi's
+judgment against them for revolt against the officers appointed by him
+to be his vice-gerents in the city while he was away.
+
+The mercy meted out was that of the tiger, not of the man.  For swords
+were busy, keen and trenchant blades hewing and hacking at the
+unfortunate wretches, till all was over, and those who might recover
+would pass to the end of their miserable days crippled and helpless,
+each with his right hand and left foot shorn from the limbs.
+
+Frank sat there motionless, for the power of action was completely gone,
+and like one absolutely stunned and dead to mental and bodily feeling,
+he looked and looked till there arose a wild, wailing outburst which
+thrilled him to the core.  It was as if the sound were two-edged, Frank
+feeling that it was not uttered by the prostrate, partially butchered
+prisoners, who lay as they had been thrown, giving forth no moan, not so
+much as watching, with agonised eyes, their life-blood trickling into
+the sand; the cry came from the trembling crowd of women and friends of
+the victims, who had been waiting till they might dare to run forward in
+a body to bear away husband or brother, and see if his life could be
+saved.
+
+It was now that a spasm of energy and excitement shot through Frank, as
+he gazed for a few moments, and then thought of the Hakim and the need
+for his ministrations there.
+
+He turned quickly to his companion, who seemed to be reading his
+thoughts, for he nodded, and together they touched the flanks of their
+horses and cantered and then galloped off the field of blood, eager to
+leave the quivering bodies and headless corpses far behind.
+
+The young Emir was perfectly silent now, and Frank had ceased to suffer
+from the repugnance he felt, for he could only think of what he had
+seen, so that it seemed but a matter of minutes before they had reached
+the gateway of the Emir's palace, though a good half hour had passed
+away.
+
+A minute later he had given the young Emir a quick nod, leaped from his
+horse, thrown the rein to one of the guards who followed him in, and run
+to their quarters at the garden end, where the camels were browsing
+contentedly and their keepers looking on, when, finding the rooms empty,
+the young man looked out.
+
+Frank felt that the Hakim must be with the Emir's friend, and hurrying
+through the passages and intervening rooms, he found Morris with the
+professor, Sam, and the Sheikh near to an angareb, or bedstead, on to
+which the wounded man had been carefully lifted a few minutes before.
+
+Better still for the young man's mission, the Emir himself was standing
+there as if he had been looking on, and he raised his head at the young
+Englishman's entrance and gave him a friendly smile.
+
+It was very near.  Frank almost betrayed himself by bursting out
+passionately with his news; but he recalled his position just in time,
+signed to the Hakim for his tablets, and in a few brief words wrote of
+the mutilated prisoners, and urged that the Hakim should ask for leave
+to try and save the sufferers' lives.
+
+Seeing that something terrible was wrong, Morris leaned over his young
+companion's shoulder and read off the words he hastily wrote upon the
+china tablets he carried in a folding book.
+
+Then, nodding gravely, he glanced at the Emir, who was gazing at him
+intently, and told the Sheikh to ask for permission to attend the
+prisoners.
+
+The Emir's countenance became very stern and hard as he listened to the
+Sheikh's interpretation, and then replied--
+
+"Tell the great Hakim that his mission is to heal the sick and wounded,
+and that I know his heart and that of his young black slave are as
+tender and compassionate as those of the angels of light.  But I cannot
+do this thing.  These men rose against the great Mahdi as well as
+against me and my friend whom you have saved.  News of the revolt was
+sent to Khartoum in the night; the Mahdi's chief officer rode over here
+this day and gave the orders himself that these prisoners should die.
+He was there to order each punishment himself.  The great Hakim asks me
+to let him save these men.  If I send him there the Mahdi's officer will
+take back the news, and my head will fall.  Does the great Hakim wish
+this, and can he give me back my life?"
+
+The stern-looking chief smiled sadly as he spoke, and his eyes seemed to
+speak as the words were interpreted to the end.
+
+"You hear, Ben Eddin?" said the Hakim gravely, and turning to the Emir
+he gravely bent his head in acceptance of his words, and the next minute
+those two had grasped hands.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER THIRTY ONE.
+
+A RIDE FOR LIFE.
+
+"No, my lad," said the Hakim, as the position was discussed, for the
+twentieth time perhaps; "it is horrible, but we have the choice of being
+friends with these people or their foes.  As friends they treat us
+admirably; as foes it means cruel slavery."
+
+"And perhaps death," said the professor.  "You must bear it, Frank,
+though I know it is hard."
+
+"It is terrible," said Frank bitterly, "for I have hard work to conceal
+my dislike to this man."
+
+"But it has brought about what we so earnestly prayed for," said the
+doctor.  "You have won for yourself the permission to go almost wherever
+you wish."
+
+"Yes," said Frank bitterly; "but I get no farther, and I am once more
+beginning to feel that we have come to the wrong place.  We must go to
+Khartoum."
+
+"Ibrahim has, I know, worked hard for us; but he gets no tidings," said
+the doctor.
+
+"None," said the professor; "but still we must not give up hope.  We
+shall have to petition the Emir after all.  How long will it be before
+your patient can be left, Robert, my son?  Let's see, it is nearly a
+month since you performed the operation."
+
+"Four weeks to-morrow," replied the doctor; "and he is rapidly getting
+strong."
+
+"But does not seem very grateful."
+
+"No," said the doctor, smiling.  "He is ten times as civil to Frank here
+as he is to me."
+
+"You ought to have tried Frank's black dye," said the professor,
+laughing.
+
+"Well," said the doctor, quite seriously, "if I had known as much as I
+know now I certainly should have followed his example.  You see, the
+best of us at home look down upon a black skin as being worn by a lower
+type of man."
+
+"Yes," replied the professor, "while here a white skin is the mark of
+the beast.  Fortunately, I am getting of a good, wholesome tan colour."
+
+"You are as dark now as Ibrahim," said the doctor, looking at his
+companion searchingly.
+
+"Am I?  Well, I suppose I am.  So much the better.  I want to be as free
+to come and go as Frank here.  I'd say that it is terribly weary work
+being kept in as I am if it were not that the poor Hakim here is ten
+times worse off."
+
+"And bears it all without a murmur," said Frank, turning to his friend
+with a look full of the gratitude he felt.
+
+"I don't mind at all," said the doctor, smiling.  "You two need not
+fidget about me.  I pity you."
+
+"Why so?" said Frank wonderingly.
+
+"Because I am so busy with my profession that the time goes quickly, and
+I am always gaining fresh experience in surgery; while you two can do
+nothing but fret and think."
+
+"Don't speak, Frank," whispered the professor warningly; "someone
+coming."
+
+It was not the Emir or his son, nor anyone to summon the Hakim to his
+patient's side, but the Sheikh returning from one of his rambles about
+the place, and the professor turned to him eagerly, for the old man's
+face suggested that he had something to tell.
+
+"News, Excellencies; it is the common report that the Egyptian army is
+coming up the river.  I hear it on all sides."
+
+Frank shrugged his shoulders and glanced at the professor, who spoke.
+
+"We have heard that report so often," he said.
+
+"Yes, Excellency, but there is a great deal of stir and preparation.
+Two more Emirs have come into the city with their followers, and the
+people are in despair with the treatment they receive."
+
+The Hakim looked at him inquiringly.
+
+"They are being turned out of their houses in every direction to make
+room for the fighting men, and a word or look is enough to bring down a
+blow from a spear shaft or a thrust.  I have seen five wounded men and
+women since I have been out."
+
+"If ever our troops do get up here," said the professor, "the common
+people will bless their coming."
+
+"Yes, Excellency, for it will mean punishment for their oppressors, and
+then peace.  Everyone now who is not a fighting man and follower of the
+new Mahdi is a slave at the mercy of the invader.  Ah, it is horrible
+what one has to see!"
+
+"But have you no news for me, Ibrahim?" said Frank, looking at him
+appealingly.
+
+"None, Ben Eddin, though I have not ceased to search and question where
+I can.  Will your Excellencies get permission for me to go to Khartoum
+to search?"
+
+"No," said the Hakim quietly.  "We may want you at any hour to help us
+with the camels."
+
+The Sheikh shook his head, with a look which suggested that any attempt
+to escape would be hopeless, and Frank was quick to read his thoughts.
+
+"You think we should be stopped?" he said.
+
+"Yes, Ben Eddin, perhaps before we had gone a quarter of a day's
+journey.  We should certainly be pursued and brought back, or perhaps,"
+he added solemnly, "not brought back--only the Hakim."
+
+There was a few minutes' silence, and then the old man turned to Frank.
+
+"I hurried back, Ben Eddin," he said, "because I feared that you would
+go out."
+
+"Yes, I am going," said Frank quietly.
+
+"No," said the old man; "you must stay.  The followers of the Emirs who
+have come in have left their fighting men to roam about the city as they
+please.  They are fresh from far away in the south, and hungry for
+spoil.  Everyone who cannot lift sword or spear is to them one who may
+be plundered, and four men were in one house torturing a poor wretch to
+make him show where his money was hidden, after they had stripped his
+place of everything that took their fancy.  I hurried away, for one cast
+hungry eyes upon my garments, and there was no help near.  The young
+Excellency must not go out."
+
+"No one heeds me now," said Frank bitterly.  "Besides, I had made up my
+mind to go to-day.  You know what the Emir said."
+
+"Yes, Excellency, that you might go about the city if you liked to take
+the risk.  But that was before the fresh fighting men had come--
+fierce-looking dervishes these from the southern desert, I think, far
+down towards the Abyssinian lands."
+
+"I shall take the risk," said Frank.  "My face will shelter me again."
+
+"Why run unnecessary risks?" said the Hakim gravely.
+
+"Because I am always haunted by the thought that at any time while I am
+sitting idling here I may be missing an opportunity for seeing Hal.  For
+aught we know he may be prisoner to one of these newly come Emirs.
+There, don't try to stop me.  The more I am out about the city the less
+likely am I to come to grief."
+
+"Will your Excellency let me ride with you?  I will get the camels
+ready."
+
+"No," said Frank; "I want to be off out.  Ah! there is some fresh horror
+on the way," whispered the young man excitedly, for the Emir's son
+passed the window and glanced up, entering directly after, and making
+Frank a sign he said a few words to the Sheikh.
+
+"The young Emir wishes you to go out riding with him, Excellency," said
+Ibrahim.
+
+"Yes," said Frank eagerly; "I will go.  There, you see, I shall be
+mounted now and safe."
+
+No obstacle was thrown in the way, and shortly after the two young men
+were riding through the streets of the city together; but there was no
+special horror on the way.  They passed, however, scores of fierce, dark
+warriors with closely shaven heads and pointed beards, and wearing large
+rings in their ears.  They were simply dressed in closely fitting white
+cotton garbs which left arms and legs bare, looking in their strong
+contrast of black and white, mounted as they were upon small, active
+horses, wild of mane and tail, and as savage of aspect as their riders,
+effective looking troops for a desert campaign; and as they rode through
+the streets, loath to give way to anyone, their eyes wandered over every
+person, place, or thing, as if, as the Sheikh had said, in search of
+spoil.
+
+On that particular day, wearied with his ineffective search, irritable,
+and hot, the young Englishman felt a strange sense of dislike pervade
+him as he rode on with his companion, who seemed to share his resentment
+on encountering party after party of the desert warriors, fine modern
+Ishmaelites; and before they had gone far there seemed to be every
+prospect of an encounter, for the rich robe and turban of the young Emir
+attracted the attention of one thin, wiry-looking black, while his
+companion fixed his eyes upon the handsome sword and dagger worn by
+Frank.
+
+These two were taking up the centre of the narrow street through which
+the young men passed, and seemed disposed to bar their way; but fear was
+not one of the failings of the Emir's son, and their attitude aroused
+his wrath.
+
+Turning to Frank, he bade him ride faster, the words being familiar now,
+and knee to knee they pressed on, making the strangers give way by
+opening out; but they returned fierce look for look, and before the
+strangely assorted couple had gone many yards they found that the black
+warriors had turned and were following them.
+
+The Emir's son turned to Frank, laughed, and touched the hilt of his
+sword, with a meaning look which the young Englishman interpreted to
+mean--
+
+"Will you help me if I have to fight?"
+
+The dervish warriors had come upon them at an unlucky time, and their
+insolent, threatening air had roused the quiet British blood in Frank's
+veins.  The feeling of hatred that had been growing against these people
+consequent upon the horrors he had seen and heard, and the irritation
+produced by inactivity and his disappointments, drove away all thought
+of the risk he might run, and the feeling grew strong that if attacked
+he must defend himself.
+
+A whirl of such thoughts rushed through the young man's brain, and at
+his companion's question and sign his eyes flashed, he nodded assent,
+and sharply grasped his own sword.
+
+The young Emir laughed again, and laid his dark hand firmly upon his
+companion's arm, disdaining to look back to see if they were followed,
+but riding forward at a walk towards where the narrow street opened into
+a wider part, upon reaching which they saw upon their left a party of
+ten or a dozen more of the dark horsemen riding slowly along as if in
+search of plunder, for several had various objects thrown across their
+saddlebows, which looked like spoil, and their wandering looks at once
+turned to the approaching pair.
+
+It struck Frank as strange in those exciting moments that the allies of
+the new Mahdi, the followers of friendly emirs, should be parading the
+streets as if they were new conquerors of the city, looking upon all
+whom they encountered as enemies; but so it was, and he began now to
+wonder what his companion would do, then why it was that he did not feel
+alarmed, for the time for prompt action had come.
+
+Neither of the young men saw what took place behind them, but a sign was
+made by one of the two dervishes in the rear, which was answered by the
+party in front opening out a little as if to check the advance of Frank
+and his companion.
+
+That was sufficient for the latter, who turned to give Frank a rapid
+glance, as he drew his sword.
+
+The example was contagious, and for the first time in anger the young
+Englishman snatched his blade from its sheath, hardly knowing in his
+excitement what he was doing, everything being comprehended in the one
+great thought that his life was in peril, and that he must be ready to
+strike.
+
+The rest followed as a matter of course, for his steed, trained and
+thoroughly accustomed to such encounters, bounded off at the same moment
+as its fellow, stride for stride, and with the hot wind surging in his
+ears Frank found himself borne swiftly straight at the party who barred
+their way.
+
+It was all a matter of a few seconds.  He heard a fierce war-cry, saw
+one of the savage dervishes rising in his saddle with a spear poised to
+deliver a thrust, which he felt that he must in some way parry, and
+almost simultaneously the dervish's horse swerved to avoid the coming
+shock, the consequence being that the fierce thrust was delivered wildly
+in the air, as the chest of Frank's Arab struck just behind the black's
+saddle.  The next moment horse and rider were rolling in the sandy dust,
+while after delivering a fierce cut which took effect upon his
+adversary, the young Emir uttered a fiercely defiant cry, and the two
+companions were tearing across the opening, making for a street in
+front, followed by half a dozen yelling dervishes who had wheeled round
+their horses and started in pursuit.
+
+Before, however, they could get their active little mounts into their
+stride Frank and the young Emir were twenty yards ahead, the former
+resettling himself in his saddle after being nearly thrown, and the
+latter half turned, shaking his sword defiantly, seeing with malicious
+joy that his adversary was _hors de combat_, half lying upon the ground,
+while Frank's was limping after his horse, which stood shaking itself
+after recovering its feet.
+
+The young Emir shouted something to Frank, who answered it with a nod,
+taking it for granted that as the enemy were still somewhere about four
+to one, their duty was to gallop for their lives, while he, moment by
+moment, became more confident as he found that all he had to do was to
+keep his seat and leave the future movements to his companion and his
+horse.  As to escaping, of that there seemed to be no doubt, for they
+two were far better mounted than their enemies, and could easily
+outstrip them unless some unforeseen accident occurred.
+
+But unforeseen accidents generally do occur at the most awkward moments,
+and it was so here.
+
+The streets were encumbered as usual in that teeming hive of misery, and
+at the sound of the shouting and the dull thud of horses' hoofs, the
+occupants of the crowded streets they passed through pressed closely to
+the walls of the low houses on either side, but there _were_ some very
+close shaves.  One of these was caused by a loaded donkey which was
+being driven slowly along and partially blocked the way; but at a yell
+from the young Emir the driver threw himself against his beast to force
+it close to a wall, leaving just enough room for the fleeing pair to
+pass, though so narrow was the space left that Frank felt his loose
+white robe brush against the house upon his right as they passed the
+ass, their horses taking the centre directly after.  Then away they tore
+again, but only to see amongst the people in front, towering above them,
+the figure of a black mounted upon a camel, whose burden projected far
+on either side.
+
+There was no riding together past this, so the young Emir drew rein,
+shouting to Frank to go on singly, the horse comprehending the order and
+tearing along, passing the camel the next instant, while when his turn
+came, the young Emir raised himself in his saddle and delivered a quick,
+cutting blow, whose effect was to divide one of the most important ropes
+of the camel's harness, wounding the poor beast slightly, and making it
+fling itself wildly across the roadway, while its burden, and with it
+the rider, fell in confusion from the ungainly creature's back.
+
+The young Soudanese uttered a malicious laugh as he rode on side by side
+with Frank, again turning in his saddle to watch and see whether their
+pursuers were checked by the accident.  They were for the moment, but
+four rushed at the load and leaped their horses over it, while the
+others forced their way by the side, and the pursuit was taken up again
+with undiminished vigour.
+
+Frank was accustomed enough by now to the roads to know that his
+companion was making for the open plain, where they could have a free
+gallop, so as to leave the enemy well behind before making for one of
+the other entrances and reaching their own part of the city where they
+would be safe.  And still gaining ground, they galloped on, turning into
+a wider way, sending the people flying to right and left, some into
+houses or gardens, others to press into doorways, but all turning to
+watch the exciting chase, for it promised to end in blood.
+
+The young Emir turned to Frank again, uttering a merry laugh as if the
+process of being hunted was a delightful sensation; but as he did so
+Frank pointed ahead, and his companion drew rein a little, while his
+countenance lowered, for there, a couple of hundred yards away, was a
+strong body of the newly come mounted dervishes, slowly riding into
+view.
+
+Frank fully expected him to turn face round to make a dash at the
+smaller party who were chasing them, and try to cut their way back, and
+with his blood regularly up the young Englishman tightened his grip of
+his sword, ready for everything; but the Emir's son rode right on,
+straight for the coming band, their pursuers yelling behind, and
+unconsciously doing the pursued good service, for it warned the people
+in the street as much as the trampling hoofs, drawing their attention to
+the flying pair, who waved their swords to them to clear the way.
+
+The wave of a hand from a galloping horseman has a wonderful effect in
+this direction, people darting out of the roadway to right and left in
+search of safety; but it is nothing to the wave of a keen sword,
+flashing in the sunshine, and this being a broader thoroughfare, the
+flying pair had on the whole a clear course, which kept on opening up
+more and more towards the coming body of horse, who so far had seen
+nothing, and in their interested staring about the great city, so new to
+these dwellers of the desert, paid no heed.
+
+In his excitement as the young men rode on knee to knee, their beautiful
+Arab steeds keeping as close as a pair of well-broken carriage horses in
+a western city, Frank pointed ahead again in the direction of the
+dervish band; but the young Emir only nodded and laughed, as he gave his
+sword a wave and rode on.
+
+"He is mad with excitement," thought Frank.  "We can never do that
+again.  They nearly fill the street from house to house."
+
+Then a wild, strange thought flashed through his brain, as he gazed in
+those brief moments straight at the dervishes, and saw their wild eyes
+clearer and clearer at every bound made by his steed--a thought telling
+plainly of the fate he expected, and which he took to be unavoidable
+now.
+
+"Will poor old Hal ever know that I came to save him, and that I died
+like this?"
+
+As this thought came and seemed to make him feel more ready for the
+coming shock delivered by those two against the dense body of horsemen
+ahead, the cause of the excitement before them began to dawn upon the
+dervish band.  There was a display of excitement, men rising in their
+stirrups and waving their spears, as they saw men of their own tribe in
+pursuit of the pair, though far behind, and the next minute one who
+seemed to be the leader drew and waved his sword, the result of the
+movement being that the band opened out a little more, so that their
+front extended from house to house, and they began to drive back all the
+people who were in the street.
+
+The fugitives were now not fifty paces from the walking dervish front,
+and in less than a minute they would have been right upon them; but in a
+flash Frank saw the meaning of his comrade's movement, for he turned
+towards him, laughing, waved his sword to the right, and the next moment
+the two horses swerved round and darted down a narrow way little wider
+than a court, and tore on in obedience to the urging from their riders'
+heels, chased too now by fresh pursuers, whose yells rang out as if they
+were a vast pack of human hounds--as indeed they were, and as
+bloodthirsty; but they were at this disadvantage: everything about them
+was new, while to the fugitives, especially to one, the maze of streets
+was familiar, and their horses were quite at home.
+
+So much so was this the case that after tearing along two or three
+streets, at every corner of which as they swung round it seemed as if
+they would come down upon their flanks, the beautiful creatures snorted
+as they tore on with expanded nostrils and streaming manes and tails,
+galloping with stretched-out necks as if they knew their goal.  It was
+so, for at the end of a few minutes' more wild dash they bounded across
+a wide way familiar to Frank, whose heart leaped as the swift animals
+dashed into an open court, plunging a group of mounted and foot men into
+a frantic state of excitement as the horses stopped by one impulse, and
+the young Emir shouted his war-cry, waving his sword above his head and
+pointing to his pursuers, who came streaming in through the open gate.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER THIRTY TWO.
+
+"BURNING."
+
+The wandering tribes of the desert, who exist by their sword and spear,
+live the life of the wild beast of prey whose eyes are ever on the look
+out for the furtive blow or stroke that shall lay them low.  Their
+swords are ever ready; their spears are constantly in hand; while as an
+additional safeguard the majority of them carry a dagger bound to the
+left wrist.  Danger is to them always lurking and tracking their steps
+as closely as their shadow.  It is the shadow of their existence, so
+that a warning cry, the wave of sword or spear by a flying man, is taken
+as an alarm at once; and hence it was that the dash into their midst of
+two mounted men, one of whom they knew as the son of a friendly Emir,
+and the sight of the pursuers was enough.  Before the flying horses were
+checked, a score of mounted spearmen were to the front to screen them,
+and in answer to a warning cry a couple of score more were untethering
+their horses; others were mounting, and a stream of foot, spear and
+shield armed, came running out of the houses, huts, and tents which
+surrounded the court.  And now a slave went running up to a door in
+front, leading a splendid white horse, just in time for the Emir, his
+master, one whom Frank had only seen at a distance.  He stepped out,
+sprang on his horse, drew his sword, and uttering a hoarse shout to his
+followers, rode with flashing eyes to their head.
+
+There was no pause for parleying; an enemy had invaded his place; his
+men were gathering round him, eager for the fray; and as the young Emir
+rode up to his side the dervishes came dashing up to range themselves by
+their leader, and in another minute the fight would have begun had the
+newly arrived strangers displayed the same daring in face of the Emir's
+rapidly increasing force that they had in pursuit of two fugitives.
+
+As it was, Frank sat upon his panting horse watching while a couple of
+the dervish party rode forward to temporise, and as far as he could make
+out by their gestures one of the two explained that they were peaceably
+riding through the city, strangers though they were, when they were
+attacked by the young Emir and his followers.
+
+At this the young chief to whom he pointed burst into a mocking laugh of
+disdain, and it seemed to Frank that as he turned to the Emir in whose
+court he had taken sanctuary with his companion, that he pointed to the
+young Englishman and then to himself, holding up two fingers, and then
+making gesture after gesture as if counting, but giving it up at the end
+of ten, and holding up his ten fingers over and over again, the Emir's
+men bursting into a scornful laugh, which seemed to be the echo of the
+young chief's mirth.
+
+There was a low, muttering growl amongst the strange dervishes at this,
+and their leader said something to which Frank's companion replied by
+riding up to them, sword in hand, and mockingly pointing with it at the
+various articles of plunder hung from the bows and cantrils of their
+saddles, and once again there was a roar of laughter from the Emir's
+men.
+
+Their leader held up his hand for silence, and then turned to the
+dervish leader as if asking him haughtily a question with the very
+gesture and air of a schoolboy at home; and exciting though the scene
+was, and doubtful whether the next minute the court would not be full of
+cutting, slashing, and stabbing combatants, it appeared to the looker-on
+just like old times when a school-fellow asked another whether he wanted
+to fight or no.
+
+It was something common to human nature, no doubt, for the dervish chief
+followed suit on the same old plan, and seemed to growl out sullenly
+that he did not want to fight, but he could.
+
+The response to this needed no thought or striving to comprehend, for
+the Emir waved his sword scornfully towards the entrance and half turned
+his back, while the strangers began to move off slowly and sulkily,
+amidst the mocking laughter of his men.
+
+But Frank saw no more as he sat upon his horse, which had begun to
+fidget about and suddenly turned to inflict a playful bite at its
+companion's mane, making the latter retaliate, when Frank's mount swung
+half round, reared a little, and began to fence and paw at the other.
+
+The young Emir said something, but even if Frank could have comprehended
+his companion's words he would not have heard, for a strange feeling of
+giddiness had attacked him, there was a singing in his ears, and his
+heart beat with slow, heavy throbs which seemed to send the blood
+gushing up in painful floods to his throat, as he felt that at any
+moment he might fall from his horse.
+
+Over exertion?  The reaction after the excitement of the pursuit?  The
+hot fit of wild desire to kill the savage enemies who sought his life,
+causing him to sink back into a state of feebleness that was extreme?
+
+Nothing of the kind.  It was the emotion caused by a strange doubt of
+his sanity, for at that critical minute his horse's movements had
+brought him facing the door from which the Emir had hurriedly rushed out
+directly after the alarm was given.
+
+It was by the merest accident that he turned his eyes in that direction,
+and when he did it was to notice a camel that had been led out from a
+side building since the chief came upon the scene, and it struck the
+young Englishman that it was one of the most attractive of the curious
+animals that he had seen.  It was of a rich creamy tint and free from
+the ragged aspect so common among its kind, long and clean-limbed,
+muscular, and looking as if it possessed great speed, while its saddle
+and trappings, which were of crimson leather, ornamented with gold and
+silken fringe, indicated that it was the property of some man of rank,
+in all probability the Emir himself, and brought out ready for him in
+case he should choose to ride it in place of the horse.
+
+The excitement was over, and a peculiar feeling of inertia had come over
+Frank.  He was wearied by what he had gone through, and the self-imposed
+task of playing his dumb part troubled him.  All he cared for now was to
+get back to his quarters in the Emir's palace, to rest and think.  He
+had come out in the faint hope of passing through some new part of the
+city with the friend whose companionship he seemed forced to bear; and
+he had not been disappointed in this, for many of the streets he had
+traversed were quite fresh to him; but he said to himself bitterly that
+he might just as well have passed the time in the comparatively cool,
+shaded garden where their camels browsed, for he was no nearer to the
+object of his quest than before.
+
+"How long is this weary, unhappy quest to last?" he thought, and then
+with a faint smile he pondered upon the wild thought that had come upon
+him when he believed that they were about to charge the dervishes, and a
+strange, fierce determination had come to him that he would strike one
+blow for his brother's sake, as he wondered whether he would ever know
+of his quest.
+
+"And I'm not to be buried under the hot sand here yet," he said, as his
+eyes wandered over the proportions of the camel, which struck him as one
+thoroughly adapted for flight across the desert.
+
+"Just such a one as I should like to see Harry mounted upon, and all of
+us making for the north, or for the English advanced posts."
+
+It was then that the strange attack came on, dulling his faculties and
+making him ask himself whether he was sane or dreaming.
+
+For as he thought of his brother, the heat of the sun seemed to strike
+down upon his head, bringing on a sudden attack of that form of apoplexy
+known as sunstroke, and in it he saw his brother step slowly forward
+holding the camel's rein and changing from one side of the animal to the
+other, acting the while as a groom would with a favourite steed that he
+had brought out for his master's use, patting and smoothing its coat,
+examining girth, buckle, and band, and arranging and rearranging the
+fine material which covered the saddle, before at last standing upright
+leaning his head back against the camel, gazing from a few yards away
+full in Frank's eyes.
+
+A vision--a waking vision, consequent upon the attack from which he
+suffered!  There he was, Harry, the brother he loved, upright and
+military of carriage as ever, but so changed.  Thin and wasted, his eyes
+sunken and full of a deep, weary, sorrowful longing, arms bare to the
+shoulder, legs naked to mid-thigh, and all burned of a dull brick-red by
+the torrid African sun, and the high forehead deeply marked by the lines
+of suffering and care.  It was Harry as he had pictured him night after
+night when he had lain awake thinking of the time when they would meet;
+clothed, too, just the same as any other camel driver, with thin cotton
+garments tightened diagonally across the body, and about the thighs,
+looking more like bandages than ordinary clothes, confined by another
+broad band about the waist.
+
+Yes: just as he had so often pictured what he must be like, even to the
+changes wrought by suffering and age.  But not Harry, for his brother
+would surely have known him at a glance, as he leaned back against his
+camel looking him full in the face, and have acted as he had been about
+to do, till the bitter feeling came home to him that this was all a
+waking dream brought on by exertion and excitement, and he felt that if
+he gazed long and fixedly the imaginary picture would fade, leaving only
+the ordinary slave camel driver of the desert looking in his direction.
+
+But the change did not come, and they gazed one at the other still,
+Frank waiting impatiently for the imaginary resemblance to die out.
+
+"So like him," he thought; "but he would have rushed to my arms as I was
+about to rush to his at all hazards, thinking of nothing but our meeting
+out here in this savage place.  I am wild and dreaming from what I have
+gone through to-day, but he is cool and calm as he stands there.  Yes:
+he would have known me at once."
+
+A shiver of misery ran through the thinker at that moment, as he grasped
+the truth.
+
+For how should his brother know him?  He was a mere youth when they
+parted at Southampton, when he saw him last upon the troop-ship--a boy
+who had just finished school--and what was Harry looking at now?  The
+companion of a Baggara Emir, a black slave, dressed in white, armed with
+sword and dagger, and mounted upon a splendid Arab horse.  One of the
+pair who had been pursued by the wild dervish band which was committing
+so many fresh excesses in the city, and looking no better in his wild
+costume, and grasping a keen-edged sword, than one of them.
+
+Another giddy sensation came over Frank Frere, and he gasped for breath,
+as with his left hand he snatched at his horse's mane and so
+accidentally jerked the rein that the horse reared and he nearly fell.
+
+The demand upon him for action, though, sent a shock through his nerves,
+and gripping his saddle firmly he sat erect and patted and calmed down
+his startled mount, the young Emir pressing up to him and nodding and
+smiling as much as to say, "Well done! you ride like a Baggara."
+
+Frank was himself again, and as soon as he could rein back a little, for
+his comrade had come between him and the vision, he looked wildly once
+more at the spot where he had seen, or believed he had seen, his
+brother; but the camel had been led away, and its attendant was no
+longer there.
+
+Was it imagination, or was it not?  He felt sick with emotion, and he
+could hardly restrain himself from leaping off his horse to go in search
+of leader and camel that he might speak and learn the truth at once; but
+at that moment the young Emir grasped him by the arm, their horses
+sidled up together, and he was no longer his own master, yielding at
+once to the touch and being led away out of the open court, while when
+he wrenched himself round in the saddle to get one wildly eager look
+back his view was cut off by a party of some thirty horsemen whose
+spears glittered in the late afternoon sun as they followed close
+behind.  For the young Emir had been furnished with a bodyguard by his
+friend, and though Frank turned again and again there was not another
+chance.
+
+They rode on for a few hundred yards with the young Emir talking loudly
+and volubly, his theme evidently being their adventures, and quite
+content with a nod from time to time.  For he was in high glee at his
+success, and the looks, smiles, and pats on the shoulder he gave to his
+companion from time to time plainly told he was proud of his gallantry
+that day.
+
+Then in an instant all was excitement again, for at a turn they came
+once more in sight of a party of the dervishes, evidently those they had
+met before, and all ready to encounter them with scowling looks.
+
+It showed the necessity for the escort, and the young Emir laughed, for
+no attempt to hinder them was made; but the party followed slowly as if
+to see where they went, and when at last the escort was dismissed and
+the two young men rode through the gates, received by their own guards,
+the dervishes were still in sight; but they at once turned and rode
+away, for the escort was advancing upon them and seemed as if it drove
+them back the way they came.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER THIRTY THREE.
+
+SO NEAR--SO FAR.
+
+"Frank, my dear boy!" cried the Hakim, when, alone with his friends, the
+young man made his announcement.
+
+He could say no more, but sat holding Frank's hand, his lip trembling,
+and moved as neither of them had seen him before.  For in all things he
+had been the calm, stern doctor, self-contained, and prepared for all
+emergencies.  But now they heard him whisper to himself two or three
+times, as if uttering words of thankfulness.
+
+As for the professor, he sat listening to the end, and then leaped up.
+
+"Fancy?  Imagination?  Nonsense, boy, nonsense; it was as real as
+anything could be.--What?  It must be fancy, or you would have run to
+his side and spoken?  It would have been fancy if you had.  Madness!
+Folly!  Bedlam-ish lunacy.  Why, you would have spoiled everything.
+Poor old Hal--poor old Hal!  Thank Heaven!  At last--at last!"
+
+He set off then walking up and down the tent-like room they were in,
+wiping the great drops of dew from his forehead openly as he passed his
+two friends; but the moment his back was to them the handkerchief glided
+to his eyes, where other salt drops kept on gathering, to be swept
+carefully away each time before he turned.
+
+"But who is this chief, Emir, or whatever he is?" said the professor,
+stopping before the doctor and Frank suddenly.  "I've never heard of him
+before."
+
+"I know nothing about him whatever, only what I have told you.  He is
+some friend of the Emir's son, and of course belongs to their party."
+
+"I suppose so," said the professor excitedly.  "Well, it all seems
+simple enough now, Robert, my son.  You must set Ibrahim to work the
+first time the Emir comes in, and tell him we have discovered that this
+other Emir's slave--Tut-tut-tut! reduced to camel driving!  Poor old
+Hal!  But better that than having his head cut off, eh?  Let's see; what
+was I saying?  I remember: that this other Emir's slave is a very dear
+old friend of ours, and that he must get him set free--or buy him--or
+let us buy him to come and help us.  Oh dear! oh dear!  Only fancy
+coming out to the Soudan to buy our old school-fellow!  Then when we
+have got him we must make our plans and be off some dark night, and--I
+say, though," he said piteously, after a pause, "that won't do.  Sounds
+childish, doesn't it?"
+
+"It would not do," said Frank firmly.
+
+"And it does sound childish, my dear Fred," said the doctor; "don't you
+think so?"
+
+"Of course it does," replied the professor.  "It would upset everything;
+but I'm so completely knocked off my balance that I don't know what to
+propose.  Yes, I do.  Look here: I know.  The poor fellow has been a
+prisoner for years, and looks old and thin, Frank says.  Then we must
+send Ibrahim at once to tell him help is at hand, and put him out of his
+misery.  No, no, no; that sounds like putting him out of his misery
+altogether.  What do you think, Frank?"
+
+"That we have been _very_ careful so far, and have at last been
+thoroughly successful."
+
+"Yes, yes; of course," cried the professor excitedly.
+
+"Now we must be more cautious than ever."
+
+"Exactly; we must tell Ibrahim not to do the slightest thing to excite
+suspicion."
+
+"I am not going to trust Ibrahim to communicate with Hal," said Frank
+decisively.  "I must do this myself."
+
+"You?" cried the doctor in surprise; and the professor looked at him
+wonderingly.
+
+"Why do you both stare at me like that?" said Frank warmly.  "How is
+Ibrahim to get leave to speak to my brother?"
+
+"For the matter of that," cried the professor testily, "how are you to
+manage?"
+
+"I don't know yet, but in a way I have been introduced there, and have
+stood close to the poor fellow.  Why may I not manage to go there again?
+The Emir's son would take me anywhere I wished."
+
+"That is true, Fred," said the doctor quietly.
+
+"We cannot set anyone else to do this," cried Frank warmly.  "This must
+be my task."
+
+"Well, I daresay you are right," said the professor; "your black skin is
+a passport anywhere.  But you must act at once."
+
+"If I can," said Frank gravely.  "There must be no undue haste."
+
+"There I don't agree with you, my dear boy," said the professor, "for
+these Emirs, even if they have homes in the city, are here to-day and
+gone to-morrow, in these warlike times.  They are wandering people, and
+it would be horrible to awaken some morning and find that poor Hal was
+gone."
+
+"But we could trace him now," said the doctor warmly.  "Hah!  One begins
+to breathe freely now that there is a bit of blue sky among the clouds."
+
+"Well, perhaps you are right, Frank," said the professor, in a more
+satisfied tone.  "The lead belongs to you too after this discovery, but
+you must be careful, lad."
+
+"Try and trust me," was the reply; "but even now I am ready to think it
+was all a dream."
+
+"Here," cried the professor, "let us tell the Sheikh and poor Sam," and
+hurrying to the window he beckoned both in from the grounds, where the
+Sheikh was seeing to his treasured camels and Sam was looking on.
+
+"Then hadn't I better begin to pack up at once, gentlemen?" said the
+latter eagerly, after he had been twice checked in his exuberant joy.
+
+"Begin to pack up?" said the professor wonderingly.  "What for?"
+
+"To get back into a Christian country, sir," said Sam warmly.  "We've
+found Mr Harry, and he's alive.  Let's be off at once, I say.  I
+haven't grumbled, gentlemen, and I ain't never said a word, but I've
+gone to bed every night--if you can say that thing they calls a anger
+reb is a bed--every night feeling wondering like that I've got a head
+left to put on the pillow.  Ugh!  It's a horrible place, where no one's
+safe for ten minutes together.  Hadn't I better begin to pack?"
+
+"When we have my brother safe," said Frank, smiling.  "I'm afraid, Sam,"
+he added sadly, "that we have a good deal to do yet before we start."
+
+"Yes," said the Sheikh gravely, "and the young Excellency must take more
+care than ever.  If there was the slightest suspicion that we were here
+to take his brother away all our heads would fall."
+
+
+
+CHAPTER THIRTY FOUR.
+
+FRESH GIFTS.
+
+Fortunately for Frank's plans the Emirs who led the late arrivals of
+forces took up their residence right at the other end of the city,
+outside which their savage followers were for the most part encamped,
+and in the various rides about the place which the young man had with
+his companion none of them were encountered, though men of another tribe
+were.  For it was evident that forces were being mustered largely with
+Omdurman as a centre--a fact which gave strength to the rumours the
+Sheikh brought in daily that the combined English and Egyptian forces
+were steadily coming up the Nile.
+
+But to Frank these rumours regarding the army were as if they did not
+exist.  His whole being was concentrated upon the one aim--to obtain an
+interview with his brother; and a week had passed with this apparently
+as far off as ever.
+
+The friends obtained a little information through Ibrahim, and, briefly
+condensed, it amounted to this: That Harry Frere--no longer kept in
+irons--was rather a favoured slave of the Emir he was with, but he was
+always jealously guarded, and constantly in close attendance upon his
+owner, having in charge the Emir's horses and camels.  But though Frank
+had seen him once more during a call which the Emir's son had made upon
+the chief who had protected him on that special day, he had not been
+able to get half so near as before, and, to add to his misery, his
+brother had not once turned towards where Frank with throbbing breast
+strove for a glance.
+
+Accident, however, often does more than the most carefully devised
+plans, and it was so here.
+
+Pending the arrival of more savage troops, the Emir and his son spent a
+good deal of time in a kind of rough drilling of the powerful body of
+men who followed their standard, and it became quite a matter of course
+for Frank to accompany the young chief, who made him more and more a
+companion; but there were days when they rode about together, and as
+Frank grew more familiar with the city his Baggara companion willingly
+enough allowed him to select the way they went, and naturally enough
+Frank arranged that either in going or coming they should pass the
+friendly chiefs house.
+
+It was easily managed, for Frank, who had naturally enough been pleased
+with the beautiful Arabian horse he rode, made this the excuse in a dumb
+way of displaying a deep interest in horses and camels, taking the young
+Emir about among their own, examining the Emir's stud in his company,
+and finally contriving to make him understand that he wanted to see
+those belonging to his friend.
+
+All happened more favourably than he could have anticipated, and as
+Frank's companion readily joined in anything that seemed to please his
+friend, it came about that one day Frank found himself in the Emir's
+place, inspecting the beautiful horses and camels which formed the
+chiefs principal wealth.
+
+They were shown readily enough, the chief looking proud and pleased with
+the eager examination and satisfaction expressed by his visitors, having
+first one and then another saddled for the friends to try, though, while
+showing a smiling face and making much of the various noble-looking
+brutes, there was a weary sickness about the young man's heart as he
+sought in vain for an opportunity to make himself known to the Emir's
+slave.  Meanwhile Harry led up horse after horse, saddled and unsaddled,
+even holding his brother's stirrup, but never displaying the slightest
+emotion, when Frank was thrilling in every fibre as he made use of
+Harry's hand and shoulder unnecessarily while mounting the kneeling
+camel which he had been holding when they first met.
+
+It was something, that touch, and to be so near to his brother.  A word
+would have been sufficient to make his presence known, but Frank dared
+not utter that word, for the Emir was there giving orders to his slave,
+and his companion was always close by, so that it was impossible to slip
+that tightly folded scrap of paper into the young officer's hand.  It
+only contained a few words, but they would have been enough if he could
+have given them with a word of warning to Harry not to look at the paper
+till they were gone.
+
+"_Cheer up!  Friends are near.--Frank_."
+
+That was all; and those words lay all through the visit ready to Frank's
+hand, while with patient endurance his brother toiled away, coming and
+going with horse and camel, till the young Emir began to grow impatient
+and Frank dared not express a desire to see more, nor yet turn to look
+after the slave leading away the last horse.
+
+But Frank felt that the visit was not in vain.  He had gained something,
+and he said to himself if he could get to the Emir's place some day
+alone and under some pretence about the horses, he might manage to have
+a word or two with the prisoner.
+
+But what was the excuse to be?--Could he contrive to get there alone
+some day when the young Emir was away with his followers?
+
+That seemed very doubtful, for twice of late when he had taken his men
+out upon the sandy plain away from the river he had invited and taken
+Frank with him, and the rides had been startling, for the young chief's
+manner suggested that since their encounter with the dervishes he had
+some thought of making him one of his followers, a member of a wild
+troop of desert warriors.
+
+Still Frank thought that there must be some way of compassing a meeting
+with his brother, one that would excite no suspicion, and one evening
+when he had been talking the matter over with his friends, and a score
+of ideas had been proposed, each of which possessed some failing spot
+and caused it to be thrown aside, the right thought came.
+
+They were sitting together feeling rather despondent, and the Hakim as a
+last resource began to talk of the possibility of an appeal to the Emir
+to gain the liberty of the young English slave, but only to make Frank
+shake his head sadly.
+
+"He would not do it," said the young man, "and he will never part with
+us.  See how the sufferers have been coming in these last three days."
+
+"Yes," said the Hakim, with a droll look of perplexity in his
+countenance; "no sooner is one cured than another appears."
+
+"Yes, two," said the professor; "we did not think you were coming out
+into the Soudan to find a tremendous practice waiting, and no pay."
+
+"But board and lodging, my dear Fred," replied the doctor, smiling.
+
+"Exactly, and certainly that is of the best.  But by the way, have you
+quite done with Emir Rontgen?"
+
+"Quite," said the doctor.  "Ibrahim told him that he was well off my
+hands this morning, and he scowled at me--well, I'll be fair--he looked
+at me as seriously as he could, made me a stately bow, and went away."
+
+"These noble cut-throats pay their doctors' bills very cheaply," said
+the professor.  "Hullo, Ibrahim, what is it?"
+
+"The Emir, Excellency, to see the Hakim."
+
+"Advice gratis only in the morning," said the professor gruffly.  "Can't
+send him back, I suppose.  What's the matter with him now?"
+
+The explanation soon came, for their friend entered at once, followed by
+three of his men laden with something, and the next minute Ibrahim was
+busy at work interpreting the great chief's speech, which was to the
+effect that his brother Emir thanked the Hakim for saving him from death
+by his skill, and begged that the great and wise doctor would accept the
+trifles that he sent by the hand of his friend.  In addition, he said
+that if at any time the Hakim would change his home, there was one for
+him in his patient's tribe, where all his people would live longer and
+be happier if they had so wise and learned a man in their midst.
+
+"But tell the great Hakim," continued the Emir, "that he must not think
+of leaving me and mine.  That I look upon him as a young man might look
+upon his noble, learned brother, for he has saved my life and my son's
+life, and given health and strength to hundreds who have come to ask his
+help."
+
+The fierce, rugged face of the Emir grew softer as he spoke these last
+words, and then drawing back he signed to two of the men to lay their
+loads at the Hakim's feet, which they did, and then left the room.
+
+"Tell the Hakim that this is from me for all that he has done for me and
+my son."
+
+At a sign the third man laid his burden upon the rug in front of the
+doctor, and passed out in turn, while bending down to take the latter's
+hand the great chief held it for a few moments in silence, and then
+moved toward the door.
+
+"Stop!" cried the doctor quickly.  "Tell the Emir to stay that I may
+thank him, Ibrahim."
+
+The chief turned and shook his head.
+
+"It is enough that the great Hakim will take my little gifts," he said,
+and he gravely passed out of the room.
+
+"Then they are grateful," said the professor, "and I beg their pardon,
+both of them.  What have they sent for you?  Rich rugs and silk and
+muslins, I suppose, and--"
+
+"Never mind them," cried Frank in an excited whisper.  "I have it now!"
+
+"What?" said the doctor earnestly.
+
+"The idea for getting near poor Hal."
+
+"Ah!" cried the professor, as excited as the speaker, for Frank's manner
+carried conviction.  "What is it?"
+
+"A present to the young Emir's friend for saving our lives."
+
+"But how's that going to bring you into contact with poor Harry?"
+
+"Like this," whispered Frank eagerly.  "He is proud of his horses and
+camels--this chief.  I will give him the finest and most costly bit and
+bridle Ibrahim can buy in the bazaar."
+
+"But are such things to be bought in the city?"
+
+"Oh, _yes_, plenty of them.  Fine red or brown morocco, ornamented with
+silver or gold.  You could get such a one, Ibrahim?"
+
+"Oh, yes, Excellency, or a saddle either."
+
+"Yes," said the professor, after a few moments' thought.  "Such a
+present would appeal to a man like that.  Yes, Frank, I like that idea.
+You could stop and watch while the bridle was put on.  Ibrahim must see
+about the gift at once."
+
+"Yes, Excellencies," said the old man; "the words are good.  To-morrow,
+then, I shall bring plenty for them to choose.  But will not your
+Excellencies see now what the great Emir has brought?"
+
+"No--yes," said the Hakim.  "We must not slight his gifts.  Open them
+out."
+
+Sam was summoned, and costly rugs, pieces of richly woven stuffs, the
+finest cotton haiks and burnooses, were spread out before the friends,
+and they noticed that their Emir's gift was far more costly than his
+friend's.  But one and all had another present in their vision, one that
+seemed to stand out real before Frank Frere all the time--a rich,
+well-stitched, red morocco head-stall and reins, ornamented with thick
+bosses and buckles of gold, and fitted with a silver bit; and that night
+when he slept the present was the main feature of one long-continued
+dream.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER THIRTY FIVE.
+
+FRANK'S VENTURE.
+
+As Ibrahim had said, the task was easy, for the next morning, before the
+Hakim had commenced with his sick and wounded, one of the Soudanese
+harness-makers was at the palace gate with his men and a great white
+donkey heavily laden with admirable specimens of leather work, barbaric
+in style, but for the most part such as would have delighted anyone of
+artistic taste.
+
+The various objects were brought in and spread before the Hakim; but
+Frank was disappointed, for there was no such bridle as he had designed
+in his mind's eye--nothing so costly; and not one head-stall that was
+ornamented with gold.  But in the end one was bought profusely decorated
+with heavy buckles and bosses of silver; the steel bit, too, had cheek
+pieces of the more precious metal, while to hang from beneath the neck
+of the steed that was to wear it, there was a large glistening ball of
+silver, from which streamed a great tuft of scarlet horsehair.
+
+The maker asked many piastres for his work, but it was well worth the
+price, and his face shone with pleasure as Ibrahim stood solemnly, bag
+in hand, to count them out; and then the black cleared away his
+stock-in-trade and went off rejoicing.
+
+"So far so good, Frank, my boy," said the professor; "but how do you
+mean to get the present delivered?"
+
+"By sheer daring," said Frank quietly, "and this very day if the young
+Emir will only let me be at rest."
+
+"And how then?" asked the Hakim anxiously.
+
+"The simplest way possible.  I shall order through the guard the horse I
+ride to be brought round, and Ibrahim will saddle one of his camels to
+bear the bridle.  Then I shall ride straight to the chief's place,
+Ibrahim will interpret my signs, and I shall give the present myself.
+After that I shall ask to be allowed to harness the Emir's favourite
+horse with my present.  He is sure to consent, and it will go hard if I
+do not contrive to slip something into poor Harry's hand or a few words
+into his ear."
+
+"Yes," said the doctor, with energy; "and the simplicity of the business
+ought to ensure its success."
+
+"I begin to think it will," said the professor, "if some of our Emir's
+people do not stop you as you are going out."
+
+"I do not think they will," said Frank quietly; "and I have a feeling of
+confidence upon me which makes me ready to say I shall succeed."
+
+The professor said nothing, but he looked very grave and glanced at
+Ibrahim, whose countenance was solemn in the extreme, while the Hakim
+seemed plunged in thought.
+
+But they had to think of other things soon after, for there had been a
+fierce encounter at daybreak that morning, some miles from the city, for
+what reason the party did not know; but its results were the bringing of
+about a dozen wounded men on horse, donkey, and camel, to be carried
+into the tent-like booth in the grounds, where of late the Hakim had
+attended to his patients, and he and his assistants were as hard at work
+as they could be for hours.
+
+"You have thought no more about that plan of yours," said the professor
+anxiously, as the last wounded man was carried out after he had shown
+his thankfulness by kissing the Hakim's hand.
+
+"On the contrary," said Frank, smiling, "I have thought of nothing else,
+seen nothing else but that bridle all the morning, and now I feel that I
+must have made plenty of mistakes."
+
+"But it will be too late to make arrangements now," said the Hakim
+anxiously.
+
+"There are none to make," replied Frank.  "Look here: there has been
+some serious fighting, of course, and I believe both the Emir and his
+son are away, or we should have seen them here."
+
+"It's of no use to argue with you, Frank," cried the professor
+pettishly.  "You have an answer for everything.  I'm sure you will be
+stopped."
+
+"Never mind," said Frank.  "I am going to try what a bold stroke will
+do.  If I am turned back I must get leave through our young chief
+another day, and chance dropping a word in Harry's ear."
+
+"I have done," said the professor.  "Try."
+
+Frank nodded, and signed to the old Sheikh to come to them.
+
+He came, looking extra solemn and quiet.
+
+"You will go to the head guard, Ibrahim, and tell him I want my horse as
+soon as it can be brought to the door."
+
+"Yes, Excellency."
+
+"You will then saddle your best camel and spread upon it, so that they
+can be seen, this bit and bridle and trappings.  If the guard asks where
+I am going you can tell him that I am going to take a present to the
+young chiefs friend."
+
+"Yes, Excellency.  He will be sure to ask."
+
+"Good," said Frank, and the old man went out without another word, while
+Frank coolly prepared for his short journey by putting on the rich robe
+that had been given to him, and buckling on his sword and knife,
+finishing off with a handsome turban of the kind the desert warriors
+wore.
+
+"Here is Ibrahim back," said the professor, as he saw the old man
+reappear before Frank was ready.  "He is coming to say that you cannot
+have a horse."
+
+"But he has gone to get his camel ready all the same," said Frank,
+smiling, and about a quarter of an hour later the Arab that Frank rode
+was led ambling up to the door of their quarters by one of the guard.
+
+The young man turned to give his friends a calm, smiling look of
+triumph, as he walked towards the window to glance at his steed.  The
+next moment his countenance fell.  For he had seen the gate from where
+he stood, and there, as if ready to accompany him wherever he went
+alone, was the chief guard, already mounted, and behind them, ready too
+and well-armed, were half a dozen men.
+
+"Ah!" said the doctor, with a sigh.  "I feared there would be something
+like this."
+
+"Yes," said the professor; "they have us safely, and do not mean to let
+us go."
+
+"The young chief must have left word," said Frank bitterly, as he ground
+his teeth.
+
+"Of course, then, you give it up now?" said the professor quickly.
+
+"No," said Frank firmly, "I am going to start--at once."
+
+The lips of both his friends parted as if to utter a protest, but there
+was something so determined in Frank's eyes, so stern and set about the
+lines of his mouth, that they forbore, and the doctor spoke gently--
+
+"Very well, Frank, lad," he said gravely; "you have had far more
+experience among these people in the city than I have, and you know the
+need of caution.  Take care; a slip may mean destruction now we have
+climbed so near the pinnacle of our hopes.  I will say no more than
+this--Go, and Heaven protect you."
+
+"Yes," said the professor earnestly, and he held out his hand.
+
+Frank grasped it firmly, and that of the doctor, who took his left, all
+three standing silently for a few minutes.
+
+Then Frank turned to go, but hesitated for a moment or two, for the
+professor was running his eye over him critically.
+
+"What is it?" said the younger man.
+
+"I was looking to see if there is anything about you that might raise
+suspicion."
+
+"Well?"
+
+"Nothing, my lad.  I have had years of dealings with the people, and I
+should never take you for anything but a native of the desert."
+
+Frank nodded, and was mute again, as he walked out and across the path
+to where his horse was waiting the beautiful animal whinnying softly in
+token of recognition, and stretching out its velvety muzzle for the
+caress that was always given and enjoyed.  The next minute the rider was
+in the saddle, with the Arab tossing its head and ambling gently beneath
+him.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER THIRTY SIX.
+
+THE REACTION.
+
+Out by the gate in the dazzling sunshine sat Ibrahim upon his tall
+camel, the headgear for the present carefully arranged so as to make a
+brave show, and the seven mounted guards waiting for the Hakim's learned
+slave, who bore the reputation now of being deeply versed in magic to
+such an extent that he could call down lightning from the skies and make
+it do his will.  A horror this to the ignorant Soudanese, and something
+to make them tremble, but no exaggeration.  For to us of this century
+who can send our messages to the other side of the earth and receive
+back answers in a few hours; talk with friends at a distance, and
+recognise their voices; receive their speeches, their songs, or the
+melodies of instruments impressed on wax, to reproduce whenever we
+please; these and scores of other such scientific marvels are but
+everyday matters of business, common trifles, though they dwarf many of
+the magic legends of the Arabian Nights.
+
+Consequently the Hakim's black slave was greeted with profound reverence
+by the Emir's bodyguard as he rode out, stern and thoughtful, upon the
+mission which he felt to be the greatest of his life, and barely noted
+that his beautiful horse ambled along as if proud of this rider in the
+flowing white robes, and whose richly ornamented sword beat softly upon
+its flank.
+
+Frank gave one glance back, however, to see that the Sheikh's camel was
+pacing along a few yards behind, the thick, long, scarlet horsetail
+plume waving beneath the ungainly animal's neck, while the seven
+horsemen rode, fiercely important, a few yards behind the Sheikh, each
+with his round bossed target and gleaming spears.
+
+For one moment Frank thought of self, and how strange it all was that
+he, the young Englishman, accustomed to London and its ways, the student
+of chemistry, full of experimental lore, should be riding there in
+disguise, the Hakim's slave and assistant--the favourite of a powerful
+Baggara Emir and his son--riding through the teeming crowds of that hive
+of horror, bloodshed, and misery, and those familiar with his appearance
+making way at once.  It was all like a dream for a few moments, or as if
+he were reading with strong imagination some romantic work descriptive
+of a scene in the south and east.  Then it was all real again--horribly
+real--and he rode gently on, thinking of the part he had to play, and
+wondering wildly whether he would have the nerve to go through all he
+had mentally planned, and whether if he were successful in getting alone
+with his brother, Harry would bear the announcement of there being help
+at hand.
+
+"It all depends on me," thought the adventurer, as he rode on, stern,
+and gazing straight before him, hardly conscious of the crowd through
+which he passed, or the whispers of the people who recognised the
+Hakim's follower; for he was busy working out his plans and picturing
+the scene in which he was to play that critical part.
+
+It might be that the lives of all would be at stake if he failed in
+carrying out what he had devised, and no wonder that his face grew more
+set, his eyes darker with thought, till, as it seemed to him, he found
+himself at the entrance to the chiefs enclosure and home, with the court
+dotted with horse and foot, camels tethered here and there, some
+standing dreamily munching, others crouched down with their long necks
+outstretched upon the sand, and their leaders and riders idling about,
+talking, playing games, or smoking, waiting till their masters needed
+them for some mission, perhaps to raid and plunder, or to join other
+bands upon some great movement instigated by Mahdi or Khalifa, whose
+steps would be marked in blood.
+
+There was no hesitation.  Frank rode boldly in, unquestioned, and not
+one of the many men scattered about ran to horse or camel, or grasped
+his weapons.  It did not seem strange to them that the Hakim's follower
+should ride in to see their chief, followed by a camel and seven of a
+friendly Emir's bodyguard.  What took their attention at once--they
+being men whose lives had been spent in company with the swift horses of
+the desert--were the bright, gaily ornamented trappings spread on the
+neck of Ibrahim's fine camel, and a low murmur of satisfaction arose as
+they gazed at what was evidently a present for their lord.
+
+Frank rode slowly across the wide, open court, with his eyes wandering
+wildly in search of his brother; but he was not visible, and he let them
+rest for a few moments upon the long, low, shed-like building into which
+he had seen him go at a former visit, that evidently being the place
+where the chiefs horses were stabled when he was in the city, the open
+heavens being their roof when halting among the wind-swept sands.
+
+Frank drew rein close to the entrance, his guard halted a dozen yards in
+the rear, and Ibrahim, after urging his tall camel close behind, made
+the beast kneel down, and then dismounted, leaving the scarlet trappings
+full in view upon the animal's back, before going forward to his
+master's side, fully conscious that every movement was closely watched,
+and standing respectfully attent while the Hakim's black follower made a
+few quick signs.
+
+Ibrahim bowed low, and went up to the house, where a knot of armed men
+received him and listened to the message he delivered, one going in at
+once, and the old Sheikh waiting ceremoniously till his messenger came
+back and spoke.  Then the old man returned as he came, to whisper to
+Frank, who nodded shortly and then sat motionless and stern, gazing
+straight at the door as if deep in thought and ignoring everything
+around.
+
+He played his part well, knowing what a battery of keen eyes were
+directed at him, while horsemen, foot, and camel riders whispered and
+told those who did not know, of how this dumb black follower of the
+Hakim was nearly as great a prophet and doctor as his master, and how
+they had cured hundreds, from great chiefs dying of their wounds down to
+children going blind from the ophthalmic curse of the desert lands.
+
+The murmur of this whispering and the loud, ceaseless buzz of the
+myriads of flies darting here and there over the sand and lighting again
+and again upon the superheated walls, when they were not torturing
+horse, camel and man, fell strangely upon Frank's ears as he grew more
+calm, and his doubts and fears died out now that the step had been made,
+and he felt ready to wonder at the calmness and confidence he displayed.
+
+The great trouble he had now was to master the intense desire to look
+round to see if the face he sought was gazing at him from some window or
+doorway, as curiously as were the rest, and he would have given anything
+to turn in his saddle and bring his eyes to bear in the search.  But he
+had well determined upon his course of action: he sat rigidly in his
+place with his eyes fixed upon the doorway about which the chief's
+followers were grouped, till there was a slight stir and the
+stern-looking warrior appeared, looking fierce and imperious, as he
+strode slowly out and acknowledged Frank's haughty bow, when his
+countenance relaxed a little, but assuming ignorance of the present upon
+the camel, he advanced with open hand to greet his visitor, saying a few
+words of meaningless welcome.
+
+Frank bowed again and turned slowly to the Sheikh, who bent low, and
+then in a few well-chosen words spoke of the intense grief felt by his
+master, the great help and chosen friend of the wonderful Hakim, of
+whose miraculous cures the noble Baggara chief must have heard.
+
+There was a bow from that individual, and Ibrahim went on about his
+master and lord feeling now, of all times in his life, how painful it
+was that he, the learned young Hakim, could not thank his highness in
+words for the protection given to him when he was pursued by those
+degenerate sons of Shaitan.  He would have liked to thank the Emir
+verbally, but as he could not do this he had come himself to ask his
+noble friend to accept a trifling gift, because he knew how great a
+lover he was of horses, and if he would condescend to accept the little
+present and place it upon his favourite steed it might bring his
+grateful friend sometimes before his eyes.
+
+There was a piece of pantomime here.  The Baggara chief looked puzzled,
+and when Ibrahim paused he looked up.  Then he looked down, and had to
+ask the old Sheikh what he meant, being quite unable to notice what
+everyone else in the courtyard could see plainly, till it was almost
+touched.
+
+Then, and then only, did he cast aside all his formal Arabic, Eastern
+stateliness and assume a rapturous expression, seizing one of the reins,
+examining it closely, raising the scarlet-dyed, drooping plume, touching
+the bit and broad band with its silver ornamentation, and uttering
+exclamations of delight the more impressive from their being to a great
+extent real, for the gift was a worthy one and such as any lover of a
+horse would appreciate.
+
+Then followed a warm burst of thanks, and a request that the Hakim's
+friend would descend and enter the house for refreshment.
+
+The critical time was approaching, and Ibrahim, in answer to a grave nod
+of acquiescence from Frank, turned to the chief to say that nothing
+could please his master more, but he had a request to make.  He, too,
+loved horses; he nearly worshipped the steed he rode.
+
+The Emir smiled and nodded as if to say no wonder, as he patted and
+stroked the glossy satin skin of the beautiful little creature.  Then he
+listened attentively for the explanation of the petition that he was to
+grant.
+
+Ibrahim enlightened him at once.
+
+It would give the Hakim's friend as great joy as he had felt when by his
+help the Hakim had brought light back to the glazing eyes of one of the
+wounded Baggara chiefs, for his great desire was to see the bit and
+bridle upon the head and neck of one of his great friend's noble
+chargers, so that he might note whether it suited the horse and looked
+as well as he wished.
+
+The Baggara chief smiled pleasantly, and felt highly satisfied that he
+was not to give something more valuable in exchange.  Then clapping his
+hands, a follower rode up and was despatched to the side building with a
+message; while Frank's heart beat in a way which seemed to threaten
+suffocation.
+
+It was hard work, but he sat unmoved, the chief talking, and the
+recipient of his words congratulating himself that he was not called
+upon to speak.
+
+Finding that he was not understood, the Emir turned to Ibrahim to bid
+him say that the Hakim's friend should have the finest barb in his
+stable bitted and bridled, and if he would descend and then mount and
+try the present himself in a ride round the enclosure, the gift would be
+rendered doubly valuable to its recipient.
+
+The words had hardly been repeated in English to Frank when a film
+crossed his eyes like a yellow cloud, through which he saw his brother
+approaching, leading the chief's magnificent, ready saddled charger by a
+leathern thong so that he had no need to touch the bridle which lay upon
+the beautiful arched neck.
+
+For a moment or two Frank felt that his heart was sinking and that he
+would break down, while as he turned away his head he saw that the
+Sheikh had noted the change in his countenance, for he was gazing at him
+in horror.
+
+Frank felt that all was over, when in an instant something happened
+which made a call upon him in another direction and gave him time to
+recover himself; for as his brother led out the chief's charger, it
+caught sight of the strange horses gathered in the court and broke out
+with a loud neighing challenge, which Frank's answered on the instant,
+reared up, and then made a bound open-mouthed to savage the challenging
+barb.
+
+Here was the necessary call upon Frank's nerve, and tightening his reins
+to retain the mastery over his steed, the beautiful Arab resented the
+check and began to kick and plunge furiously, calling forth all its
+rider's skill to retain his seat; and it was not until after a couple of
+minutes' hard fight, during which the horse seemed to have been smitten
+with a notion that the proper equine mode of progression was upon its
+hind legs, and the use of the fore was to strike out and fence, that it
+condescended to go on all fours, while even then it was only to gain
+impetus for a series of stag-like bounds and attempts to dash off in any
+direction that seemed open.
+
+Frank had ridden fairly well at home, while during his stay with the
+Emir he had had plenty of opportunity for improvement, his companion
+having mounted him upon a splendid steed, and, being a wild and reckless
+rider himself, had gradually led Frank into thinking little of many a
+mad gallop out into the desert plain.
+
+Hence it was that instead of feeling startled at this new development of
+vice on the part of his steed, the rider, as he grasped the fact that
+everyone was watching him as if in expectation of seeing him thrown,
+felt the blood flush to his cheeks in an angry fit of annoyance which
+made him grip his saddle with all his force, and set to work to regain
+the mastery over the excited beast.
+
+For the next five minutes the latter darted here and there, seeming to
+grow more and more infuriated as it found its efforts vain, for it was
+bitted with a powerful curb, the sharp use of which checked it again and
+again, till finding its rider ready to meet it at every turn, it gave up
+the struggle as quickly as it had begun, settled down at once into a
+gentle amble in the extreme corner of the court, into which it had
+dashed, scattering half a dozen camels and looking as if it intended to
+attempt to leap a low tent and gain its liberty there.
+
+The next minute Frank was riding quietly back, hot and flushed, but
+mentally composed, listening to a loud outburst of admiration as he
+passed group after group of the Emir's horsemen, men who had, to use a
+common term, been almost born in the saddle.
+
+As Frank reined up close to where the Sheikh and the Emir were standing,
+he saw that the old man's face looked strangely mottled; but he had no
+chance of giving him an encouraging look, for the Emir advanced
+smilingly, and patted and made much of the Arab, turning directly to
+speak to Ibrahim.
+
+"Tell the Hakim's friend," he said, "that he is mounted upon a horse as
+full of speed as the wind, and that he rides it as a brave man should."
+
+The words were interpreted, and Frank replied to them with a calm
+bending of his body, turning directly after to where his brother stood
+holding the chief's horse, and finding that he could dare to look at him
+without being attacked by that horrible sense of emotion.
+
+The chief then gave a haughty command or two, and the horse was led
+close up to Ibrahim's camel, where it stood as if it were some beautiful
+piece of statuary, while its bit and bridle were removed and the present
+quickly adjusted to its head, Harry Frere taking up a hole or two here
+and there till a perfect adaptation was made, when as if proud of its
+new finery the noble charger tossed up its head, making the scarlet
+hanging plume float about in the glowing air, and then stood motionless
+with head erect.  Once more there was a loud outburst from the chief's
+assembled followers, and he stood looking as proud as the horse.  Then
+he walked round it, giving it a caress or two, and finally signed to his
+slave to lead it nearer to Frank, whose heart once more began to beat
+hard as his brother obeyed, and the next minute stood so near that he
+could have leaned from his saddle and laid his hot hand upon the poor
+fellow's shoulder.
+
+Fortunately he was given no time to think, for the chief came alongside
+and signed to him to dismount.
+
+Feeling as if it were all a dream from which he must awake the next
+moment, Frank threw himself lightly from his horse, handed the rein to
+the Sheikh, and then stood while the chief's barb was led up to him,
+striving successfully not even to glance at the leader; but taking up
+the reins he thrust a foot into one stirrup, and sprang up, fully
+expecting a repetition of the battle through which he had already
+passed.  But the beautiful creature stood perfectly still until the
+slave dropped back, and then, in response to the slight pressure of its
+strange rider's heel, started off at a slow walk, Frank sitting up
+proudly, but breathing hard, for he was panting with excitement on
+finding that something which he had foreseen would be the case was just
+as he wished, for it had everything to do with the _ruse_ he had
+planned.
+
+A fresh burst of cries arose as the beautiful barb paced along past its
+master, then at a touch began to amble and curvet, tossing its beautiful
+head, while Frank gave and bent to its various motions, feeling
+perfectly at his ease, for the springy movements were delightful.
+
+He passed the chief twice, and he could see that the Baggara looked as
+proud as a boy of his splendidly caparisoned horse.  He saw, too, in one
+quick glance that his brother had gone back towards the shed-like place
+from which he had brought the mount, while the Emir's followers had
+gathered to one side of the court, everyone taking the most profound
+interest in the equestrian display, while the other side of the court,
+opposite to the house near which the chief stood, was vacant.
+
+Now was the time if the _ruse_ was to be attempted, and Frank drew a
+deep breath as he advanced towards the Emir, while as he passed him he
+made a quick, hurried gesture to the assembled followers, waving his
+hand to them to give way and leave him room to have a gallop round the
+court, at the same moment pressing the barb's sides so that it broke
+into a canter at once, careering along with the scarlet plume sweeping
+out, and once again there was a loud, eager cry.
+
+Frank felt that he was riding well, and the horse sped along till the
+last of the mounted men were passed, and directly after he was riding
+along the vacant side of the court, on and on till he was about fifty
+yards from where his brother stood, and in full view of the Emir and his
+men, when in obedience to a light check the horse stopped short, falling
+back almost upon its haunches, and as all gazed wonderingly across at
+where the rider sat they saw him gesticulate angrily at the waiting
+slave, as if ordering him to approach.
+
+Harry Frere ran to him at once, and Frank threw one leg out of the
+stirrup, pointing downward, and in dumb show bade him lengthen the
+stirrup leather, pointing out that he had been riding with his knees up
+towards his chin.
+
+The Emir laughed to himself, and his followers smiled at the absurd way
+in which these strangers loved to ride, while one of the many officers
+laughingly pointed to the long stirrup of the visitor's horse, but no
+one stirred; they only watched what was going on some thirty or forty
+yards away.
+
+For it was simple in the extreme: Frank sat looking down haughtily, and
+his brother with deft fingers rapidly unbuckled and readjusted the
+stirrup leather, looking up once at the masterful black who could not
+speak but signified his commands with haughty looks and impatient signs.
+
+It was all commonplace, and the spectators waited patiently, seeing the
+glance up of the slave, the trying of the left stirrup, and the
+impatient, imperious gesture to the man to adjust the other leather, the
+rider swinging himself round with his back to the Emir as the white
+slave darted under the horse's neck and seized the right stirrup, his
+face hidden by the horse from every one in the court, while it was
+perfectly natural that the rider with his back to the Emir should bend
+down as if watching the alteration being made.
+
+The next moment the obedient slave disobeyed, for a low, soft,
+impassioned voice said in English--
+
+"For Heaven's sake don't start!"
+
+He started violently, and began to tremble in every limb.
+
+"Help is near at hand.  Do what I say.  Fall, have some accident, and be
+very bad.  Do you understand?"
+
+"Yes, yes," came in a hoarse, trembling voice.
+
+"Then ask for the Hakim to save your life."
+
+"Yes, yes, but--but--who are you?"
+
+"Hush!  Quick!  Alter that stirrup for your life!"
+
+Harry Frere uttered a low groan, and his brother felt that he was about
+to swoon and fall.  But he dared speak no more.  The time had come to
+act, and with an angry gesture he rose up in his seat and threw his arm
+over as if to draw his sword and strike with the flat of the blade at
+the dilatory attendant who was so long.  Then all was over, for the
+slave jumped back now the stirrup was lengthened, and stood with bent
+head and extended hands as the horse bounded off along the empty side of
+the court, Frank passing the chief at full gallop, pointing to the
+lengthened stirrups as he went, and then on and on at full speed to pass
+round the court again, seeing that his brother was standing near the
+opening of his shed, and as he passed he had ready and jerked towards
+him three or four bright piastres, without so much as turning his head.
+
+The next minute he pulled up short by the Emir's side, sprang from the
+horse, and threw the bridle to the nearest man, not daring to stay while
+his brother ran up to take the rein.
+
+So it was that when the slave took charge of the horse Frank was with
+the Sheikh, mounting his own a dozen yards away, but was stopped by the
+Emir, who hurried up to him and seized upon Ibrahim to interpret his
+words of thanks for the present and for the admirable way in which he
+had taught his people how to ride.  "But," he said, with a peculiar,
+mocking smile, "they will be obstinate; they will not ride with long
+stirrups like the Hakim's friend."
+
+And the next minute--
+
+"Tell the Hakim's friend that if he would learn to ride as we do, with
+the stirrups short, so that he could get a better hold of the saddle, he
+would be as fine a horseman as ever lived."
+
+Frank nodded and smiled, and signed that he was about to mount.
+
+"Ask the Hakim's friend to enter and partake of such poor fare as I can
+give," protested the Emir; and upon the words being interpreted Frank
+shook his head, but pointed to his lips, signifying that he would drink.
+
+The Emir clapped his hands, and as Frank turned he saw his brother
+passing out of sight, while from the house a couple of slaves came
+quickly, bearing brass vessels and cups.
+
+The long, cool draught of some refreshing beverage was welcome to
+Frank's parched throat, but he kept up the set smile upon his
+countenance, in spite of the agonising mental torture from which he
+suffered, and it was with a sigh of relief that at last he rode away,
+followed by a friendly shout from the party in the court, and reached
+the cool, darkened rooms of the Emir's place feeling more dead than
+alive.
+
+"Well," asked his friends in a breath, as he threw himself upon the
+rug-covered angareb in his room, "did you succeed?"
+
+"Ask Ibrahim," he said.  "I hardly dare to hope."
+
+They turned to the old Sheikh, who made a gesture with his hands.
+
+"Excellencies," he said, "I stood there with a knife as it were held at
+my throat all that dreadful time; but it was wonderful.  How could he do
+it--how could he act like that?"
+
+"Who can say?" said Frank, as his friends turned questioning eyes
+towards him.  "I can't talk now; I feel weak as a child.  I only know I
+could not do it again to save my life."
+
+"But we are in agony to know," said the doctor.  "Pray try and tell us
+something of your plans."
+
+The appeal gave the young man strength, and he told all that had passed.
+
+"But what will follow?" said the professor, whose voice trembled from
+the excitement he suffered.  "Will Harry--can he carry out your plan?"
+
+"Yes," said the doctor.  "He is as firm when put to the test as Frank
+here."
+
+"Ah!" groaned Frank; "firm?  I am as weak as water now.  I am trembling
+with the horrible thought that the chief saw through the subterfuge, for
+he smiled cruelly; and if he did--what of poor Harry's life?  I shall
+have slain him by what I did, for they have no mercy on an escaping
+slave."
+
+
+
+CHAPTER THIRTY SEVEN.
+
+THE BREAKDOWN.
+
+There was a fresh patient for the Hakim in the morning.
+
+He was awakened by Sam, whose face was full of consternation.
+
+"Do get up and come to Mr Frank, sir," he said in a hurried whisper.
+
+Morris sat up at once.
+
+"What is it?" he said in the calm, matter-of-fact way of a doctor who
+always feels that a sudden awakening means a call upon him for aid.
+
+"I went to tell him it was time to rouse up, sir, and he began talking
+nonsense."
+
+"What do you mean?" said the doctor, dressing hurriedly.
+
+"Called me a white-faced dog; and then `The stirrup,' he says, `the
+stirrup: can't you see it's too short?'"
+
+"Ah?" ejaculated the doctor.
+
+"`Stirrup?'  I says, `what stirrup, sir?' and then he went on: `You
+English are not fit even for slaves.  Be quick!  Can't you see that your
+lord and his friends are waiting to see me ride?' he says, `and don't
+defile those red reins with your dirty white hands!'  Of course I knew
+he was dreaming, and I shook him, but only made him burst out into a lot
+more stuff--telling me I was to fall ill and ask for the Hakim to cure
+me, and then we should be all together again.  But that ain't the worst
+of it, sir."
+
+"No?  Then what is?" said the doctor, fastening up his long robe calmly.
+
+"He's quite off his head, sir, and his tongue's running nineteen to the
+dozen.  If you can't stop it we shall have all the Emir's people
+noticing it.  Hadn't you better pretend as you've cured him, sir, and
+made him speak?  If you don't we shall be having the cat let out of the
+bag, and all be scratched to death."
+
+"Let's see, Samuel," said the doctor quietly, and he followed his man
+into the next room, to find Frank talking wildly.
+
+He seemed to recognise his friend directly, and caught him by the arm.
+
+"Look here," he said, "I have no time to advise you, Hal.  Be thrown
+from a horse; cut your forehead, or your leg.  Do something that they
+can see looks bad--something that will stain your white things with
+blood.  They will believe it then, and beg that you may be taken to the
+Hakim.--Ah, what are you doing here?  Why are you not curing the
+Baggara's white slave?"
+
+The doctor had taken his young friend's wrist and laid a cool hand upon
+his burning, throbbing brow, with excellent effect, for Frank's loud
+talking grew broken, then indistinct, and rapidly sank into a low,
+incoherent babbling, as he closed his eyes.
+
+"Hah!" said Sam softly; "it's wonderful, sir.  To do that with just a
+touch of your hands.  But what is it, sir?  One of those horrible
+African fevers?  'Tain't catching, is it?" he added excitedly.
+
+"If you feel alarmed," replied the doctor coldly, "keep away from the
+room.  Mr Landon and I will nurse him."
+
+Sam turned upon him with a reproachful look.
+
+"Likely, sir!" he said scornfully, and he bent over the angareb and
+began giving little touches to the pillow, making a point of passing his
+hand over Frank's face and leaning quite close so as to feel his breath
+play upon his cheek, before laying a hand upon the sufferer's.  "I don't
+care if it is ketching," he said; "I'm not going to leave Master Frank
+in a hole like that.  If I get it he'll get better and help me.
+Breath's hot, sir, but it don't smell nasty and fevery.  P'r'aps it's
+only being too much in the sun, after all."
+
+"Thank you, Samuel," said the doctor, in his quiet, grave way, and he
+patted the man gently on the shoulder.
+
+"Thank me, sir?--Oh, here's Mr Landon, sir."
+
+"Hullo, there!" said the professor, hurriedly entering; "what's the
+matter?  Don't say Frank's ill!"
+
+"He is saying it for himself, my dear Fred," replied the doctor.  "You
+have had some experience of this sort of thing out here.  Look at him.
+He is calmer now, but he was talking wildly at random a few minutes
+ago."
+
+"What!  Oh!  Saint George and the Dragon! he mustn't begin to talk,"
+cried the professor excitedly.  "That would spoil all."
+
+There was a pause while the professor bent over and examined the
+sufferer.
+
+"Well," he said, "I'm not a doctor, but my journeys out here made me
+dabble a bit, and quack over my own ailments and those of my followers
+when there was no medical man to be had.  I don't know, Robert, old
+friend, but I should say it was a touch of brain fever, consequent upon
+yesterday's excitement in the sun."
+
+"Ah-h-h!" ejaculated Sam, with a sigh of relief.
+
+"You be quiet," said the professor sharply.  Then turning to the doctor,
+"Well, what do you think?"
+
+"The same as you do.  Poor lad!  His anxiety was horrible, and what he
+went through was enough to prostrate a man twice as strong."
+
+"But you don't think he is going to be seriously ill?"
+
+"I hope not.  Stay here while I mix him a sedative.  He must have sleep;
+and Sam, get ready cold water compresses for his head."
+
+"Cold water, sir?" said the man gravely.
+
+"Well, a bowl of water, my man.  I'll bring in something to make it
+evaporate more quickly."
+
+The doctor went to where his case lay in a corner of his room, and
+rapidly prepared a sedative draught, took up a bottle, and returned to
+the professor, to find Sam waiting with bowl of water and cloths.
+
+"He's babbling about Harry and that plan of his," said the professor.
+
+"No wonder, poor fellow!  Raise him up a little.  I daresay he will
+drink this quietly enough."
+
+"One moment, sir," said Sam hurriedly.  "Me, please," and with an
+eagerness evidently intended to fully disabuse the doctor's mind of all
+doubts regarding his fear of infection, Sam went behind the head of the
+couch and carefully raised the sick man's head and shoulders so that he
+could drink easily; and this he did with avidity.
+
+The next minute the doctor had half emptied a bottle into the water,
+which gave forth a peculiar, pungent odour on Sam wringing out a
+handkerchief; and this was spread across the poor fellow's temples and
+afterwards kept moist.
+
+"Just at the most unlucky time," said the professor, with a sigh, as
+they sat near, watching the patient, who had sunk into the desired
+sleep; "but we must make the best of it.  Here, Sam, we must eat and
+drink whatever happens."
+
+"Breakfast is quite ready, sir," was the reply; "but I haven't seen
+anything of Mr Abrahams this morning."
+
+"Look here," said the professor angrily, "if you call the Sheikh Abraham
+again I shall throw something at you.  Ibrahim, once more," he
+continued, spelling the name letter by letter.
+
+"But that's only his ignorant way of spelling it, sir," protested Sam.
+"He told me himself it's the same name as we read of.  It's Abra--ham,
+as I told him myself; but he only smiled at me as if he knew better."
+
+"Well, what about him?"
+
+"He hasn't been near, sir, and his young men--and one of them's ten
+years older than me--say that he hasn't been back since he went out last
+night."
+
+"Tut--tut--tut--tut!" said the doctor.  "I hope he has not fallen into
+any trouble now."
+
+But before the breakfast was over--a meal that was interrupted twice by
+the doctor's visits to the patient--Ibrahim came to the door, and was
+told to enter.
+
+He looked sharply at the two gentlemen, and then at the door leading
+into Frank's room, and back inquiringly at the doctor.
+
+"Yes," said the latter gravely; "he is ill, Ibrahim."
+
+"The heat of the sun and the dreadful trouble yesterday, Excellency,"
+said the old man excitedly.  "I feared it.  The heat made even me feel
+ill.  But he will soon be better?"
+
+"I hope so," said the doctor; and the professor broke in--
+
+"But what of yourself, Ibrahim?  You have news?"
+
+"Yes, Excellency.  If you listen you can hear them coming."
+
+"Not the Egyptian Army?"
+
+"No, no, Excellency, not yet.  But spies keep coming in, all bringing
+the same news, that British forces are slowly and surely coming up the
+river to Khartoum, and the Khalifa is sending out his people to gather
+in more and more of the wild troops.  They are crowding into the city
+and camping about outside.  There will be war before long."
+
+"There must not be till we have escaped, Ibrahim," said the professor.
+"We being respectable singing birds must not be caught in the net along
+with the black dervish daws."
+
+"If the British and Egyptians win the battle, Excellency," said the
+Sheikh gravely.  "We must not shut our eyes to the fact that these wild
+tribes are very brave, while the Egyptians--well, Excellency, we know
+that they have not made a very brave stand in the past."
+
+"But our British force will be up here in strength?"
+
+"Yes, Excellency, and if it depended entirely upon them I should not
+fear."
+
+"Then you do fear?" said the doctor gravely.
+
+"Hardly fear, Excellency, but I have my doubts, and I am troubled about
+our position in any case."
+
+"Why?" said the professor.
+
+"I have been out all night gathering news from such of the people as I
+have made my friends.  The city is being filled with wild and lawless
+tribes who have come to fight for the new Mahdi, and whose pay is the
+plunder that they can gather from anywhere.  They are their own friends
+only, and think of nothing else but what your English officers call
+loot.  Even so soon as this past night there has been murder and outrage
+with plundering in the lower parts of the city, and the better people
+here would take flight at once, for their lives are not safe, and their
+wives and daughters seem marked out at once for the slaves of these
+savage men.  I tremble for our own fate, and would gladly call my men
+together and risk an escape this very night, before the country round is
+swarming with the new Mahdi's people and we could not stir."
+
+"But you will not do this, Ibrahim?  You will not forsake us when we are
+so near success?"
+
+"Alas!  Excellency, we have not won success as yet, though we have found
+the young Excellency's brother."
+
+"Does that mean that you mean to escape and leave us?"
+
+"His Excellency the great Hakim knows that I have sworn to be faithful
+even unto death," said the old man proudly.  "No, I will not leave you.
+I only speak out and tell you of our peril.  If the prisoner we are
+trying to save were here I would say, Go this night.  But he is not
+here, and our position is very bad."
+
+"What, with the doctor's reputation spread as it is, and such friends
+about us as the Emirs?"
+
+"The Emirs are but men, Excellency," said the Sheikh, looking the
+professor full in the eyes.  "They can do much with their own followers,
+but nothing with the wild beasts of murdering dervishes who would slay
+anyone for the handsome robe he wears, or to carry off his wife and
+children for slaves.  The great Emir and his people are our friends, but
+alas! our Emir here, his son, and his son's friend left Omdurman with
+all their forces last night for the north, to stay the British advance.
+We are here with only the twenty men of the Emir's guard, while we shall
+soon be surrounded by thousands who have never heard of the Hakim's
+name."
+
+"This is bad news indeed, O Sheikh," said the professor, frowning.
+
+"Bad tidings of the worst, Excellency, but it is true.  These are the
+gleanings of the past night that I come with sorrowful heart to tell
+you.  We have had much good of late, and my heart was glad last night as
+I saw that the young Excellency, Ben Eddin, would soon scheme that his
+brother should join us, and that then we would flee across the desert to
+the British camp; but now--"
+
+"Well, Ibrahim; but now?" said the doctor sternly.
+
+"Now, O Hakim, another sorrow meets me here: the young Excellency, Ben
+Eddin, is stricken down, and we have not rescued the prisoner slave as
+yet."
+
+"But you have some plans," said the professor excitedly.  "What do you
+propose to do?"
+
+"Nothing as yet, Excellency.  We must wait till the young Ben Eddin is
+well and we can bring his brother here.  Till then we must be patient,
+and trust in God."
+
+
+
+CHAPTER THIRTY EIGHT.
+
+FOR FREEDOM.
+
+The English party had ample proof of Ibrahim's words, for the narrow
+ways of the city were thronged that day with the wild troops that had
+ridden in from the desert, many too from Khartoum, and the wild blasts
+and throbbings of barbaric trumpet and drum resounded through the place;
+but the Emir's house remained undisturbed, though more than once the
+professor noticed that there was an uneasy look in the eyes of the head
+guard when he came near them, and appeared to be especially devoted to
+the care of all in the place.
+
+That day there were no calls upon the Hakim for help, and he was able to
+devote himself entirely to Frank, upon whom his ministrations had the
+best effect.
+
+In fact, he woke that night as if out of a long sleep looked wonderingly
+at Sam, and seemed puzzled by the bandages laid across his head.  Then
+as if realising that he had been ill, he lay perfectly still, thinking,
+till the doctor came to his side a short time later, when he took and
+pressed the hand which felt his pulse and head, nodded gently, and
+proved at once that the fit of delirium had quite passed away, for he
+said in a whisper--
+
+"Don't say anything.  I know I have been ill.  But tell me: any news of
+Harry?"
+
+"Not yet, my dear boy.  We must have patience."
+
+"Yes, Frank, lad," said the professor cheerily, "patience."
+
+Frank bowed his head softly and let his eyelids drop, lying perfectly
+still for some little time.
+
+"Drowsy, Frank?" said the doctor at last.  But there was no reply.  All
+was silent but the distant sound of shouting and uproar, as if the
+newcomers to the city were quarrelling with their friends.
+
+The silence startled the professor, who looked from their new patient to
+the doctor, and back again searchingly; but the latter paid no heed.
+
+"Is this right?" he said at last, anxiously.
+
+"Yes, perfectly right.  What I have given him has checked the fever, and
+he will sleep from exhaustion for many hours to come.  But we must watch
+by him through the night, in case there should be any relapse.  I do not
+think there will be, but we will be upon our guard."
+
+"Of course," said the professor.  "I was going to propose that I should
+sit up with him."
+
+"Thanks, my dear Fred," said the doctor gravely; "but I have already
+made my plans.  We will take three hours each.  Which watch will you
+have?"
+
+"The first," said the professor.
+
+"Best so.  Watch by him till midnight; then wake up Samuel, and he shall
+call me at three."
+
+The Hakim was master of the position, and everything was carried out as
+he proposed, the doctor coming on duty to receive the same report as the
+professor had given to Sam, to wit, that the patient had not stirred.
+
+It was about six, and the doctor was congratulating himself upon the
+long, restful night his patient had enjoyed, when the face of the old
+Sheikh appeared at the open window, to which the doctor stepped softly
+and satisfied the old man as to the sick one's state.
+
+Ibrahim nodded his satisfaction, and set to work at once upon Sam's
+duties, preparing the morning meal quite as a matter of course, but
+receiving orders to hurry nothing, so that no one should be disturbed.
+
+"The young Excellency will be better soon?" whispered the old man.
+
+"If we could give him good tidings to-day, Ibrahim, he would be nearly
+well," replied the doctor.  "Have you anything to tell?"
+
+"Nothing, Excellency, only that the city is full of dervishes, and the
+wretched people are lamenting that they have not fled to the north.
+They pray that the Egyptian army may soon be here.  One said last night,
+`If the Khedive's people do not soon come they will find none of us
+left.  These our masters will either slay or carry us away for slaves.'"
+
+An hour of patient watching ensued, and then there was the sound of many
+voices at the gate, and Ibrahim's grave face looked full of anxiety as
+he hurried out, while the doctor aroused his friend and Sam.
+
+He had just time to return to the side of Frank's couch, to find him
+sleeping still, when Ibrahim came back to the door with the officer of
+the guard, and their manner set his heart at rest, for they had
+evidently no danger to announce.
+
+The old Sheikh set his face hard, as he spoke in a whisper.
+
+"One of the chiefs--a friend of our master the great Emir, and friend of
+the new Mahdi," he said, "sends you one of his slaves, O Hakim, and bids
+you for the sake of your young friend, whom he saved from a dervish
+band, to heal his hurt."
+
+The doctor felt as if something had clutched his breast, and he looked
+up, fighting hard to be composed, to see that the professor had come to
+the inner door and was hearing every word.
+
+His voice sounded husky as he spoke, but he mastered his emotion and
+said gravely--
+
+"My knowledge is at the service of all who suffer, and I will try and
+heal the slave of the great Emir's friend.  Let the injured man be
+brought to the door.  What is his hurt?"
+
+"Thy servant cannot tell," said the old man, and he interpreted the
+Hakim's words to the officer, who retired, and in a few minutes
+returned, ushering to the outer door a white figure lying with
+fast-closed eyes upon a hand litter, which was set down outside.
+
+The Hakim drew a deep breath, and again had to fight hard to maintain
+his composure, for he felt that the critical time had come, just, too,
+when he who had toiled so hard to bring all this about was lying
+insensible to the success of his plot.
+
+It was only a temporary fit of nervous agitation, and then the Hakim was
+walking gravely and full of dignity of mien to where the injured man
+lay, the professor following him, trembling with excitement.
+
+There were about a dozen of the chiefs followers standing about the
+litter, all eager to catch a glimpse of the great Hakim, but ready to
+shrink back reverently when he appeared, leaving only the chief of the
+guards and one who was their leader.
+
+These, too, drew back a little, and all seemed to accept as a matter of
+course that the great Hakim should pass gravely out of the door, walk
+round the litter, and then stand by its side with his back to them, the
+professor and Ibrahim taking their positions close by.
+
+"Let the Emir's people say why this man has been brought," said the
+Hakim slowly, and as he looked down he saw the occupant of the bier
+start and tremble; but did not raise his eyelids.
+
+The Sheikh interpreted the words, and the head man, who had
+superintended the bringing of the slave, said quickly--
+
+"Tell the great wise Hakim that our master's slave is broken.  We know
+not how, and he has not spoken since.  But he waits upon the horses, and
+one must have kicked him in the side."
+
+It was hard work to be calm at such a time, the man's words when
+interpreted by the Sheikh seeming to stab and give the hearers intense
+pain.
+
+But the Hakim remained firm, and bending down he laid his left hand
+softly upon the sufferer's eyes and the right upon the breast, remaining
+perfectly motionless for a minute; then raising himself he said in his
+deepest tones--
+
+"Let the young man be taken within."
+
+The Hakim's orders were interpreted again, and there was a little
+excitement for a few minutes, during which the doctor gravely walked
+back to the inner room, leaving the professor and Ibrahim to superintend
+the moving, and waiting till the bearers had passed out again and the
+window was closed.
+
+A deep silence fell upon the group, while the Sheikh drew back
+respectfully, to stand on guard by the door of the partially darkened
+room.
+
+Then the doctor spoke in his low, deep tones.
+
+"There must be no emotion, no outburst of excitement, Hal.  Our work is
+all to do yet, and our lives depend upon our being calm.  Just a word or
+two in the lowest tone."
+
+"Morris, old friend," was whispered, in faltering accents, and the thin,
+careworn object of their mission gazed up wildly in his old
+school-fellow's eyes.  "You have dared to come here--for me?"
+
+"Yes, and please God we will take you back in safety."
+
+"We?" whispered the prisoner.  "Who is that brave young black who
+ventured so much?"
+
+"Your brother Frank," said the doctor slowly, and he laid his hand
+quickly upon his new patient's burning brow, for as he anticipated,
+there was a violent start.
+
+But the prisoner with a great effort mastered his emotion, and said
+softly--
+
+"I did not know him.  And you two have risked your lives like this?"
+
+"We and Fred Landon," said the doctor softly.
+
+"Fred Landon!" cried the patient, with a hysterical gasp.  "Dear old
+Fred!  How like him!--Tell him--"
+
+"Tell me yourself, Hal," whispered a voice at the back of his head.
+"Some time, but not now.  I am the Hakim's assistant; there, I may grip
+your hand, dear old lad.  Anyone might see me do that."
+
+He reached over to seize the prisoner's left hand, for the right was in
+the doctor's, when in spite of a brave effort there was a violent start,
+the right hand contracted spasmodically upon the doctor's, but the left
+lay inert, while they saw the great drops of agony gathering upon the
+thin, sunburnt face.
+
+"Hal!" cried the doctor, dropping his practised calm.  "Great heavens!
+you are not really hurt?"
+
+"I could not help wincing," was the faltering reply.  "Not hurt?  How
+was I to have been brought here without?"
+
+"We expected some pretence."
+
+"Pretence!" said Harry Frere bitterly.  "You do not know the Baggaras.
+They are keenness itself.  It is real enough, but I am well paid for the
+pain."
+
+"But your hurt?" said the doctor eagerly.
+
+"My left arm."
+
+"What, kicked?"
+
+"No," said the sufferer, perfectly calm now.  "I broke it myself."
+
+A deep silence fell upon the group, save that the old Sheikh uttered a
+low groan, and then the doctor was himself again.  This was real--real
+suffering to allay, and a word brought the professor to his side, just
+as Sam came hurriedly to the inner door, fresh from Frank's angareb.
+
+"Hush!  Not a word," said the doctor sternly; "only help me here.
+Quick! my case, lint, bandages, and splints."
+
+But Sam did not move.  He stood as if turned to stone, gazing where the
+light shone upon Harry Frere's thin, worn face, and reading recognition
+in the eyes fixed full upon his.
+
+"Oh!" he cried, with a sob, and forgetting everything he sprang to the
+side of the litter and dropped upon his knees.  "Mr Harry at last!"
+
+The doctor could not speak, as he saw his old companion raise his right
+hand and lay it upon the servant's shoulder, while the professor uttered
+a strange sound, which, if it had escaped a woman's breast would have
+been termed a sob.  Then the doctor spoke.
+
+"That will do," he said sternly.  "Obey my orders at once.  The rest
+must wait till we are safe."
+
+Sam sprang up to fetch what was required, and the professor made an
+effort to recover his composure, the demand made upon him by his old
+school-fellow's condition rousing him to action.
+
+"One word only," said the prisoner faintly.  "You said my brother--"
+
+"He is yonder," said the doctor quietly; "ill, but not seriously.  You
+must not see him now.  His _ruse_ has succeeded, and we have you here.
+Now I must see to your arm."
+
+"No, no, not now," said Harry excitedly; "we must make some plan or
+another about escaping.  You must not stay here--you will be
+discovered."
+
+"Leave that to us," said the doctor sternly.
+
+"No, no," cried his new patient.  "I have nearly been driven mad during
+my long imprisonment, but if aught happens to you all I shall go quite
+out of my mind in my despair."
+
+"Silence!" said the doctor sternly.  "You are badly hurt, and your
+injury is telling upon your brain.  I will not have you dwell upon our
+position.  Look here, you can trust us.  We have found our way here,
+found you, and had you brought to us.  Give up to us at once, and trust
+to our doing what is best."
+
+"Yes, yes," said the poor fellow passionately; "but you do not
+understand.  Never mind my arm.  I will keep still, and the fracture
+will mend of itself."
+
+"Will it?" said the doctor grimly.
+
+"Yes, yes; but look here," whispered the sufferer; "we must talk; we
+must decide upon some action."
+
+"No," said the doctor, "not now.  You do not understand our position."
+
+"I can guess it," said the poor fellow wildly.  "Think then of mine.  I
+am brought here for you to set my arm; in half an hour at the outside I
+shall be taken back to my owner.  We may not have another opportunity to
+speak--we may never meet again."
+
+"Now I insist," said the doctor firmly.  "You will have plenty of time
+to talk to us by and by."
+
+"No, no; you do not understand, Morris."
+
+"But the Hakim does," said the doctor grimly.  "Now I order you to trust
+to me and wait."
+
+The poor fellow's head fell back, as he uttered a groan of despair, and
+the next minute, with eyes half-closed, he lay perfectly still,
+suffering acute pain, but making no sign, while the great surgeon's deft
+fingers felt the injury, commenting upon it from time to time, so that
+Landon could hear, and while splint and bandage were handed to him as
+required, by the professor or Sam.
+
+"A simple fracture of the ulna," said the doctor calmly; "no splinters,
+and as far as I can make out, very little laceration of the muscle--easy
+to set, and it ought to be rapid in the healing.  There!" he said at
+last, "the broken ends will begin to secrete fresh bone matter almost
+directly, and with care your arm will be as strong as the other.  Cup,
+glass, and number four bottle, Frederick, my son."
+
+The professor hurried away to the doctor's case, and the latter took
+hold of his patient's hand to feel the pulse.
+
+"A little feverish, Hal, old fellow," he said calmly.  "Did I hurt you
+very much?"
+
+"Oh, no.  But Rob, old lad!"
+
+"Silence!" was the uncompromising command.--"Ah, that's right, Fred.
+Bottle, glass, water!  Now, Hal, drink that."
+
+"No," said the patient angrily.  "It is a narcotic.  You want to send me
+to sleep so that I shall not know what you are planning.  Is it fair to
+me after I have broken a limb so as to get myself brought here?"
+
+"Perfectly fair.  Listen; it is not a strong narcotic, only something to
+soothe the pain you must be in.--There, that's better.  Hal, my dear old
+boy, you always did trust me; trust me now."
+
+"Well, I will," said the sufferer hoarsely.
+
+"That's right.  Now I will set your mind at rest.  The great Hakim has
+more power here than you think for."
+
+Harry Frere suppressed a groan, and his eyes wandered from one to the
+other, noting how the others present seemed waiting eagerly to obey
+their chiefs slightest gesture or word; while now at a sign he saw the
+Sheikh close up and stand waiting with bended head.
+
+"Go to the officer who brought our friend, and tell him to come here."
+
+The Sheikh turned to go, but the professor interposed.
+
+"One moment," he said earnestly; "Frank is in there--you know how.
+Suppose he begins to speak as he did last night."
+
+"It is not probable," said the doctor quietly.  "Go, Ibrahim."
+
+The Sheikh passed out of the room and through the door, to where the two
+officers stood waiting patiently, with their men a short distance away;
+and as a curtain was drawn aside a burst of barbaric music and loud
+cries of "Allah!  Allah!" were borne into the room.
+
+As the curtain dropped back into its place the doctor took a cushion,
+and carefully raising the splinted and bandaged arm placed the soft
+pillow beneath.
+
+"Now," he said, "lie still and close your eyes.  Don't stir while these
+men are here.  I need not tell you to try and look bad, for Nature is
+helping you there, my dear old fellow.  Hal, lad, your arm will soon
+knit together, but make your mind easy: you are too bad to move."
+
+"No, no, Rob, you are wrong.  I feel a little drowsy, but so free from
+pain.  I could get up and walk."
+
+"The Hakim thinks differently.  Silence!  They are coming.  Samuel,
+stand there!  Fred, my son, bend over him with those bandages and that
+scalpel.--Hist!  Close your eyes."
+
+His orders were obeyed, and as Harry Frere closed his sunken eyes, old
+cares and sufferings, combined with the mental and bodily agony he was
+passing through, gave his face, in the shadowy, dim, curtained room, a
+look that was absolutely ghastly.
+
+Directly after the curtain was drawn aside by the Sheikh for the two
+officers to pass in, both looking awed as they gave a sharp look round
+at the strange scene.
+
+The next moment the Baggara who had brought the injured man started
+forward a step to look down at his charge, and then recoiled, to say a
+few hurried words to the Sheikh, who turned gravely to the doctor and
+interpreted.
+
+"The Emir's servant says, Excellency, that the white slave is dead, and
+that he dare not go back with the tidings, lest his head should fall."
+
+The Hakim turned slowly to the officer and smiled, as he laid a hand
+upon his patient's forehead.
+
+"Tell him," he said, "to bear the tidings to his master that the white
+slave will live, and his broken arm will soon be well."
+
+"Ah!" exclaimed the Baggara.  "The Hakim is great.  Then we may carry
+him back at once?"
+
+The words were interpreted to the doctor, who made his reply.
+
+"No; if the slave is taken away he may die.  Bid him tell his master
+that the Hakim will keep the injured slave here and make him whole, as
+he has the Emirs, his master's friends."
+
+The Baggara officer looked troubled and perplexed.
+
+"Tell the great Hakim that his servant was bidden to bring the slave
+here and take him back.  There is nothing for him but to obey."
+
+"Yes," said the doctor, drawing himself up proudly and fixing the man
+with his eyes, pausing at times to give Ibrahim ample time to interpret
+his words, "it is his duty to obey till a greater man than his master
+bids him do this or that."
+
+The doctor's words sounded loud and imperious, and he had got so far
+when an impatient voice was heard from the room where Frank was lying,
+calling first one and then another, and a cold chill ran through all
+present, for the voice sounded as it were the knell of all their hopes.
+Even the doctor was silenced for the moment, but recalling directly that
+only the Sheikh could understand his words, he called angrily in a voice
+of thunder, looking hard at the Sheikh the while.
+
+"Lie still, Frank, till I come!"  Then: "Tell thy master that the Hakim
+will keep the white slave here.  Take him this from me as my pledge that
+I will cure his slave.  Enough!  Now go."
+
+As he spoke he raised his hand to his white turban, detached the large
+Egyptian jewel he wore, and then gave it to the Sheikh, who took it
+reverently, and as he interpreted humbly the Hakim's words ended by
+placing the rare token in the officer's hands.
+
+The Baggara bowed his head over the pledge, as he wrapped it carefully
+in his fine linen scarf, and saying humbly, "The Hakim is great," he
+gave a final glance at the patient and backed slowly out of the room,
+followed by the officer of the Emir's guard, while the curtain was
+quivering still where it had fallen back when Frank appeared in the
+opening leading to his room.
+
+"What does all this mean?" he said.  Then, catching sight of the ghastly
+figure lying upon the couch, he uttered a cry of joy, and rushing
+forward fell upon his knees by his brother's side.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER THIRTY NINE.
+
+TIGHTENED CHAINS.
+
+Those were minutes of agony to all concerned, for there was the trouble
+of Frank's calls while the doctor was speaking.  It was nothing that the
+strange officer had heard them, but the fact that they must have been
+heard by the guard, familiar with them all was startling, and the
+position was excitedly discussed.  The Sheikh said that the officer had
+made no allusion to it since, and the doctor recalled to them the fact
+that the man could not have recognised the voice, for he had never heard
+Frank speak.  Besides he did not know that Frank was lying there ill.
+
+"Let him think that there was a mystery about it all, Excellencies,"
+said the Sheikh; "and when he sees Ben Eddin again going about his
+business as of old, making his desires known by signs, he will never
+think that it was he who spoke."
+
+"But who will he think it was then?" said the professor.
+
+"Who can say, Excellency?  They are superstitious children, these strong
+fighting men of the desert, and believe in demons, genii, and afreets.
+He will say to himself that it was the voice of the Hakim's familiar,
+that he heard the invisible spirit by whose help he works his cures, and
+be glad of heart that the djin, or whatever it might be, did not strike
+him dead for being there."
+
+A couple of hours or so later they were startled by the appearance of
+the very man of whom the Sheikh had been speaking, and all fancied
+afterwards that he looked very hard at Frank, who was sufficiently
+recovered by the success of his plan to be able to keep about, and hence
+was present in the room.
+
+The chief of the guard had come to announce the return of the Emir's
+officer with a message to the Hakim, and when the Baggara was ushered in
+it was to announce that his master thankfully accepted the Hakim's
+pledge, but felt that it was not right for so great a sage, mullah, and
+prophet, to be asked to waste his time over a dog of a white slave.  In
+conclusion he prayed that the great Hakim, whose very touch bore healing
+to the sons of men, would deign to accept the gift he sent him by his
+servant--the offering being a costly emerald ring, roughly and clumsily
+set in gold.
+
+One difficulty was at an end, for all felt that the doctor might insist
+upon the prisoner staying till such time as they could ripen their plans
+for escape, while in addition that night, the Sheikh learned from their
+guard that Harry Frere's master had marched with all his force to join
+the Emir and his son, who were camping out waiting the arrival of other
+bands before joining forces with the Khalifa.
+
+"Many have left the city, Excellency," he said, "but more have come in,
+and the streets are filled with strangers who know us not."
+
+"Then now ought to be the time for us to escape."
+
+"Yes, Excellency," said the old man sadly, "but we are watched and
+guarded here.  I fear that our chief guard has begun to doubt us, and he
+will watch us more closely still."
+
+"That is awkward," said the professor.
+
+"Yes, Excellency, and it is impossible to journey now with all these
+strangers here ready to stop us, to plunder if not to slay."
+
+"More awkward still, Ibrahim."
+
+"Yes, Excellency, for if we started some night, instead of all being of
+good courage, light and rejoicing in our strength and in having saved
+the young Excellency's brother, we have two sick men."
+
+"Most awkward of all, Ibrahim," said the professor.  "But never mind; we
+have mastered all difficulties so far, and it will go hard if we do not
+conquer after all."
+
+"Yes, Excellency, and we will try."
+
+The professor went and talked over all he had heard with the Hakim, and
+as he did so he felt that there was a compensation for it all in the
+sight of Harry Frere lying upon the angareb, peaceful and at rest, with
+his brother grasping his uninjured hand.
+
+"The sight of Harry did more good," he muttered, "than all the doctor's
+stuff."
+
+During the next few days the dread of the guard's suspicions died out
+and was pretty well forgotten in the wild excitements which followed one
+upon another.  For the Khalifa's troops came pouring into the place and
+camping around in all directions, till the poorer inhabitants, and those
+who lived by trade, began to long for a deliverance from their so-called
+friends, feeling truthfully that the occupation of the place by the
+enemy--British and Egyptian--from the north, would be a welcome
+blessing.
+
+Meanwhile fresh news was always being brought in by spies and scouts.
+The enemy was approaching fast; he was devastating all before him and
+covering the banks of the river with the slain, who were being swept
+down the rapid streams by thousands.
+
+The enemy had come by boat, by camel, by horse, and by means of the
+strange litters which ran on rails of iron.  They had advanced in all
+their proud strength, with standards flying and their men playing
+savage, barbarous strains upon hideous instruments; and as they came on
+they shouted in their pride and folly, little thinking what was to come.
+For the new Mahdi had come down from Khartoum mounted upon a jet black
+horse whose eyes blazed fire, whose mane and tail streamed out like the
+wind-swept sand in a storm; and he had with his chosen joined all his
+Emirs and wisest generals--a mighty host greater than the desert sands--
+and then with standards flying and drums beating he had, in the name of
+the Prophet, joined battle with the infidel.  He had opened out the
+fore-front of his host as the Christian dogs cowered back in fear,
+forming his attack in the shape of the crescent moon, and then to the
+war-cry of "Allah il Allah!" they had swept down upon their enemies as
+the sand of the desert sweeps down in a storm.  The spears and swords
+flashed as they drank the infidels' blood and rode on, crushing them
+into the sand, till the Mahdi's conquering host stood breathless upon
+the banks of the river Nile, into which the Christian and the Egyptian
+armies had been driven, and not one was left to tell the tale.
+
+The Emir's chief of the guard bore the first account to Ibrahim, and
+told it stolidly, his forehead in lines; but within two hours he came
+again and told him the second tale.
+
+But his face bore no trace of elation.  He merely told the tale as it
+had been brought to him, finishing by saying--
+
+"If the battle is won, my master, the Emir, will soon be back."
+
+"Then he did not believe the account?" said the professor coolly.
+
+"I thought not at the time, Excellency.  Perhaps he knows what his
+people can say.  But what does his Excellency think?  The camels are all
+healthy and strong; my young men are ready; and the great Hakim has but
+to give the word.  Then we could lift the two brothers upon the swiftest
+camels, taking nothing but the few poor things we need, and fly as soon
+as it is dark, for there is no moon now."
+
+"Let us hear what my brother says," said Frank, who was listening to all
+that had been said.  "What do you think, Hal--could we escape?"
+
+"No," was the decisive answer.  "The country round swarms with armed
+men--bloodthirsty savages, panting like the jackal and hyaena for blood
+and spoil.  We could not go a mile without being stopped, and if we were
+the next hour we should all be slaves, or the camels would be driven off
+while the sand was soaking up our blood."
+
+"You hear, Ibrahim?" said Frank.
+
+"Yes, Excellency, I hear, and the Excellency your brother speaks the
+words of truth.  The risk would be too great unless the Khalifa's army
+had been put to flight."
+
+"But you have heard these two accounts."
+
+"Yes, Excellency.  What does your brother think?"
+
+"I think," said Harry Frere, "that the first was invented by some Emir,
+jealous of the Khalifa; the second by the Khalifa himself.  All false as
+the people themselves.  We shall have more such tales."
+
+"Then you think you would still defer our start, Hal?" said the Hakim,
+who had sat listening in silence.
+
+"Certainly, for we should only be riding to our death.  We must accept
+our position of prisoners until the Khalifa's men have suffered some
+real reverse.  Then strike off at once for the desert and make a long
+_detour_ upon the camels before trying to reach one of the British
+positions on the river."
+
+"Not make for our army at once?" said the Hakim quietly.
+
+"No, for we should come upon them in the first flush of victory, and the
+chances are that we should encounter Egyptian regiments, who would take
+us for--what do we look like, Frank?"
+
+"So much like the enemy that we have deceived them so far.  Look at us,
+Morris, Hal and I are as if we were native born; Landon is little
+better; then there are Ibrahim and his men; while there is not enough of
+the Englishman about you now to save our lives."
+
+"You are right," said the doctor.  "Ibrahim, we must wait."
+
+"I think you are right, Excellency; but you bade me be quite prepared,
+and I am ready to start at a moment's notice."
+
+"We will wait," said the doctor; "and meantime go on bringing us news."
+
+The old Sheikh bowed and left the place, to return in an hour with
+another completely different account of the state of affairs, and by
+nightfall he had brought in eight more circumstantial reports, every one
+of which was a tissue of fables, invented to support or weaken the new
+Mahdi's power.
+
+And so the days wore on in a continuous state of excitement, the
+prisoners--for such they were now more than ever, with the exception of
+Ibrahim--being fully prepared to start upon their return journey at any
+moment when the opportunity should offer, the madness of any attempt as
+matters were being only too evident; and finding that the Emir's officer
+and the guards were rigorously faithful to the trust placed in their
+hands by their master.  For as soon as Frank had recovered from his
+attack, he determined to have a ride round the city and its suburbs to
+judge for himself how matters stood, and gave orders through the Sheikh
+for his horse to be brought round; but upon their guardian being
+summoned they were met by a point-blank, though respectful, refusal.
+
+"I am answerable with my head for the safety of the Hakim and his
+people," said the guard; "and for the Hakim's friend, Ben Eddin, to ride
+out now means an attack by some one or other of the wandering bands.  I
+and my men will defend him to the last, but what are we against so many?
+I have been left with the twenty men to defend the Emir's house and
+those he has left behind, and if the Hakim's friend rides out I and half
+my men must go with him; then what are ten to protect all that is here
+from danger?"
+
+Frank angrily bade Ibrahim to tell the man he exaggerated matters, and
+that he was sure that both the Emir and his son desired that their
+friend should be free to go about the city.
+
+The officer bowed respectfully, but he was immovable.
+
+The Hakim and his people must stay within, he said.  If the Emir or the
+young Emir were angry when they returned he must bear it, but they could
+not blame him much, for he had done his duty, and that he felt he would
+neglect if he let the Hakim's young friend go into danger.
+
+Frank, feeling how much there was at stake, became more importunate, and
+then the officer turned to Ibrahim, after listening to the Sheikh's
+interpretation of Frank's signs, most of which took the form of angry
+pointings towards the camels.
+
+"Speak for yourself," said the officer, "and make the Hakim's friend
+know the truth.  Tell him whether you think it is safe for him to go out
+of this place, and whether it is just for him to order me to neglect my
+charge by leaving the house unguarded."
+
+"The man is right, Excellencies," said Ibrahim at once.  "It would be
+like riding out to tempt death for us all."
+
+There was nothing for it but to resign themselves to circumstances, and
+the expedition was given up, the party being now the closest of
+prisoners; but as if to make up for it their guards were more respectful
+than ever, and their head was indefatigable in his endeavours to
+forestall all their wants.
+
+As Frank said when they were alone, it seemed as if they were neglecting
+their opportunities by not making their attempt while the Emirs were
+absent, for at any moment they might return and Harry's owner be sending
+a party of his men to fetch the injured slave back to his duties.
+
+But this did not happen, and though much of the information which
+Ibrahim brought in was simply rumour, he was able to supply facts, and
+among these were the announcements that the house of Harry's master was
+closely shut up and guarded by a few men, and that the whole city was
+thronged with savage-looking dervishes who plundered as they chose
+slaying and destroying where there was any resistance, while the whole
+place was in a state of siege.
+
+"The time has not come yet, Excellencies," the old man said, "but it may
+arrive at any moment, and we will be ready to start."
+
+"Where for?" said the doctor sternly.
+
+"Who can say, Excellency?  That must depend on fate.  If we can, our
+place of refuge must be with the British troops; if we cannot reach them
+there is the desert."
+
+"But why not try for the desert now, striking right away for the open
+parts, far away from the ordinary caravan routes?" said the professor.
+
+"Because we should be cut off by some of the wandering bands before we
+could reach those distant parts, Excellency; and yonder there are other
+enemies: the sun to strike us down, and the dry sand.  How can we
+journey on through the burning desert where there are not springs or
+wells?"
+
+"Could we not keep to the river?" said the doctor.
+
+"If there were none of the dervishes there we could, Excellency," said
+the Sheikh; "but it is certain now that the British force is steadily
+coming on to reach Khartoum, and the Khalifa's men are gathered all
+along the river banks, increasing daily like the desert sands.  There is
+nothing open to us but to wait."
+
+"And the Emir and his friends will return, and we shall be worse off
+than ever."
+
+"Can the young Excellency say for certain that the Emir and his friends
+will return?" continued the Sheikh.  "Surely it is more likely that the
+dervish army will be scattered like dust before the desert wind.  Think
+of the long preparations that have been made, of the steady, slow
+advance of the English army.  Every step of the way has been made sure
+with road and station, where are supplies for the fighting men.  This
+will be the great blow struck at the new Mahdi's power, to put an end
+for ever to the bloodshed, pillage, and outrage of his savage bands, and
+I dare prophesy that this time he and his will be driven back into the
+desert from whence they came--a plague of locusts that they are; while
+if this great blow is struck--"
+
+"It will be here in this city first, and at Khartoum later on?"
+
+"No, Excellency," replied the Sheikh; "the men of the desert are men of
+tents.  They do not, like you of the West, make great cities with walls
+and cannon; they come from the desert, and they will fight in the
+desert.  When the time comes they will advance from the city, to strike
+their blow in the plain.  We must try and make our effort then, for
+Omdurman will be deserted whichever way the fight may go.  Till the time
+comes be watchful; help the Excellency Harry to grow strong; it will
+make the journey easier for us all."
+
+"I am ready now, Sheikh," said Harry gravely; "the strength is coming
+fast, and as to my arm, it grows less painful day by day.  You need not
+stop for me."
+
+"That is good news, Excellency," said the old man, smiling.  "We have
+only to be patient, for I have great hopes.  We have conquered in
+everything up to now, in spite of all, and we shall go on to the end.
+Only have faith, and trust to me."
+
+
+
+CHAPTER FORTY.
+
+IN SUSPENSE.
+
+It was one bright evening after an exciting day, during which the
+prisoners, shut up as they were within the walls of the Emir's so-called
+palace, had gone through hours of feverish impatience, listening to the
+trumpeting and drumming outside accompanying the marching of the troops,
+but knowing nothing of what was going on save that the Egyptian army was
+approaching.  That they had learned through Ibrahim, and it was endorsed
+by the officer of the guard.
+
+From him, too, they learned that the new Mahdi had reached the
+neighbourhood with a force of the finest fighting men led by Emirs of
+great repute; and he added through Ibrahim that there could be no doubt
+of the result, for the Egyptian army, the scouts declared, were weak and
+trembling, ready to desert or throw down their arms, while the white men
+had half perished by disease, and the other half were unfit to fight.
+
+"But," said the Hakim through his interpreter, "we have had such reports
+as these before, and they were not true."
+
+"No, they were lies--all lies; but these words are true."
+
+"And you think the Khalifa will conquer?"
+
+"Oh, yes," said the man, with a look of calm satisfaction; "he cannot
+fail."
+
+"How do you know all this?"
+
+"From the Emir my master," said the man proudly.
+
+"Ah!  You have seen him?"
+
+"Yes: he rode in last night to see if all was well."
+
+"What!  The Emir came here?"
+
+"Yes, and praised thy servant for all that he had done.  He gave him,
+too, other commands.  That the Hakim and his people were to be protected
+at all costs, for they were friends; and that if there was danger from
+the wild and fierce dervishes who might attack the palace because it was
+not strongly enough guarded, the Hakim and his people were to be mounted
+upon camels and were to be taken away."
+
+"Where to?" said the doctor.
+
+"To Khartoum, with the Emir's wives and slaves."
+
+The officer returned to his duties, and soon after Ibrahim announced
+that he was making preparations, two score of camels being got in
+readiness for instant flight if the danger should come.
+
+"Can we escape in the confusion?" said the professor.
+
+"We will try, Excellency.  I have, as you know, everything ready, and
+now I will go and learn all I can about the Egyptian army's advance up
+the river, for there is no doubt about its being near.  Whether sick or
+not I cannot say."
+
+"Sick or well, they will fight," said Harry, with a warlike flash of the
+eyes.
+
+"I pray so, Excellency," said the Sheikh, and he too left.
+
+But the day glided by and the night had come, a day and night of wild
+turmoil and anxiety; and in this great emergency the Sheikh did not
+return.
+
+His absence at this extremely critical time came upon the party like a
+shock, for it was only now that they fully realised the full value of
+the services he had rendered, and surmises as to the cause of his
+absence were discussed one after the other.
+
+One of the first things proposed when night closed in was to consult the
+officer of the guard.  But here a difficulty arose at once--their
+interpreter was missing.  The professor's knowledge of Arabic was
+extensive and he had picked up a few words of the dialect used by the
+Baggara; but he got on with the guard with the greatest difficulty, and
+the Sheikh's young men were completely wanting in the lingual powers of
+their chief.
+
+"You must let me question him," said Harry.  "He seems to have no
+suspicion of our having been friends."
+
+"I don't know that," said Frank and the professor, almost in a breath.
+
+"But we have been most careful over keeping up my character of the
+Hakim's patient."
+
+"Yes," said Frank, "but this man is wonderfully quiet and observant.  I
+half fancy that he is suspicious, after all."
+
+"He cannot be," said Harry.  "He knows that I was sent here, and can by
+no means have the most remote idea of why you came."
+
+"I don't know," said the professor, shaking his head.
+
+"I feel satisfied," said the doctor.  "We did not come here of our own
+accord, but were brought.  We had better have him in, and as if by our
+orders Hal can question him."
+
+There was no opposition to this, and one of the camel-drivers was
+fetched and sent down to the gate, while Harry lay down with his
+bandaged arm exposed, on an angareb close to the door, where he lay
+looking ghastly and feeble by the light of the lamp.
+
+The officer came at once, and the professor made him understand what was
+required, when he turned to the injured prisoner, who soon proved that
+he could speak the desert Arabic tongue pretty well.
+
+"The great doctor," he said, "is thinking about his servant the Sheikh.
+Where is he?"
+
+"I fear that he is dead," was the reply.  "I told him when he went out
+that he carried his life in his hand."
+
+"But why should he be slain?" asked Harry.  "He was no fighting man."
+
+"Because no man's life is safe," was the reply.  "He went out upon one
+of the Hakim's camels, and any dervish who wanted one of the beasts
+would have followed him.  Hundreds in the town want camels and horses
+now, and if the Sheikh gave his up quietly to the man who asked, it
+would be well.  If he refused, a thrust from a spear or a blow from a
+knife would be sufficient."
+
+"Then I am to tell the Hakim he will not return?"
+
+"No.  Tell him that he may return, but that I fear he will not.  Tell
+him, too, that he is to be ready, for we may have to leave here soon
+after it is light."
+
+Harry signified that he would, and then started, for the officer said
+suddenly--
+
+"How is it that you can speak the Hakim's tongue?"
+
+"Because I was once among the Franks.  It is a tongue that is known far
+and wide.  He is a great man, and my arm will soon be well.  Is it not
+time that my master fetched me back?"
+
+"Thy master has gone to fight the enemies of Allah," said the officer
+scornfully, "and has no time to think of thee."
+
+There was no more information to be obtained of the man, whose whole
+manner seemed to have changed, and the sound of the tapping of a
+war-drum drew him away directly after, leaving the party undecided what
+to do.
+
+One thing was evident, that with the strict guard kept over the place
+any attempt at evasion would have been useless, and it was decided that
+if they were to escape it must be during their journey to Khartoum.
+
+"But we must not give up all hope of seeing Ibrahim return," said the
+doctor.  "Go to the men, Landon, and find out what they think about
+their chief."
+
+The professor left the room at once, leaving his friends listening to
+every sound that came through the open windows of the soft night; and
+there were many, all going to prove that something extraordinary was
+afloat, the little party having no difficulty in making out that a large
+body of men were on the move, while when this had ceased and a peculiar
+stillness began to reign, the distant tap, tap, tap of another drum was
+heard, followed in due time by the dull tramp of men.
+
+"I had no idea," said the doctor, "that these Baggara were in such a
+state of discipline.  Why, they seem to march like European troops."
+
+"You have not seen so much of them as I have," said Harry sadly.
+"During my imprisonment I have had plenty of time to study them, and
+have seen pretty well why this is.  Of course their leader's position
+depends upon his army more than upon his reputation of being the prophet
+upon whom the last Mahdi's garment has fallen."
+
+"I suppose so," said Frank.  "Mahomet's great power came from the
+sword."
+
+"Of course," replied Harry.  "No wonder that, with an army to back him,
+he made so many converts.  It was, `Which will you have, the Koran or
+the sword?'  And it is so now with this man, only it is worse.  Brutal
+violence of the most horrible description wherever he and his followers
+go, and there is more stress laid upon the sword than upon the Koran."
+
+"And the spear added," said Frank.
+
+"Exactly.  I don't want to harrow you with the horrors I have been
+compelled to witness, and what I have seen and known to occur is but a
+drop of blood in an ocean.  The country has been laid waste for the
+gratification of this human fiend and his vile followers."
+
+As he spoke the tramp, tramp of men came through the window once more,
+and Harry nodded.
+
+"As so much depends upon the army's efficiency, this Mahdi, like his
+predecessor, whose paltry tomb you have seen, has done his best to bring
+the tribes up into as perfect a state of discipline as can be managed
+with such wild beasts.  They have plenty of modern rifles, and they know
+how to use them, and they have been drilled sufficiently to make them
+dangerous.  Of course you know how."
+
+"By imitating what they have seen in the troops sent against them," said
+the doctor, as he sat listening intently to the sounds from without.
+
+"By the help of renegades," said Harry bitterly.  "I might have been one
+of the Mahdi's generals--an Emir, by now, if I would have taken some of
+the troops in hand.  I had offers enough, and of course it meant
+becoming a follower of Mahomet."
+
+"But you resisted the temptations," said Frank proudly.
+
+"And became a groom," said Harry, smiling bitterly.  "I suppose if it
+had not been for my love for horses and camels I should have lost my
+head like my poor leader.  Oh, if it is only true, and the British
+forces are close up!  Surely the day of retribution has come at last."
+
+"I want the day of escape for us to have come, Hal," said the doctor,
+reaching over to lay his hand upon his old school-fellow's arm.  "Our
+work is done when we have got you away.  Let's leave the punishment of
+the dervishes to--Ah, here's Landon back.  Well, have they any news for
+us?"
+
+"None of Ibrahim, and the men want to know what they are to do."
+
+"Nothing," said the doctor sadly.  "We are prisoners, and resistance to
+the Emir's guard would be madness."
+
+"So I have told them, but they don't want to go in search of him."
+
+"What, then?" said Frank impatiently.  "You mean something else?"
+
+"Yes," said the professor sadly; "we are to shift our quarters.  Our
+guard has given them orders to load up their camels with fodder,
+provisions, and water, in case we have to take to the desert, and to
+fill the water-skins so as to have an ample supply.  They are to be
+ready to start at a moment's notice, and asked me if they are to obey."
+
+"And you told them yes, of course?" said Frank eagerly.
+
+"I told them yes, of course," said the professor sadly; "but I don't
+like going.  It is leaving poor old Ibrahim in the lurch."
+
+"But I suppose we have no option?" said the doctor.
+
+"None unless we make up our minds to resist."
+
+"And that would be throwing away our lives," said Harry gloomily.  "This
+chief of the guard has his orders, and he is evidently a man who will
+serve his master faithfully and well.  I suppose he will be taking the
+Emir's household with us?"
+
+"Yes; the other part of the palace is in a busy state of preparation,
+and the court next to the garden here is full of horses and camels."
+
+"It is our opportunity," said Frank, "and if we start before daylight we
+may be able to separate from the rest of the party.  What are we going
+to take with us?"
+
+"I should go away as we came.  The Hakim's cures have helped us well,
+and they may do so again, for who knows how far we may have to travel
+through the desert, or what tribes we may encounter?  So let's be
+prepared."
+
+Their baggage was so light and so well arranged that there was little to
+do beyond strapping up a few cases, and at the end of a busy hour they
+were quite prepared, while they had hardly finished before the officer
+came in, cast an eye over the leathern cases lying ready, and then gave
+a nod of satisfaction.
+
+"Tell the Hakim," he said, turning to Harry and speaking sharply, "that
+there are no tidings of his Arab servant and guide.  He must have been
+cut down by some robber for the sake of his camel.  Tell him, too, that
+he has done wisely in being prepared.  I cannot say how soon we start;
+it may be in an hour, it may be after sunrise, or not at all.  But when
+I give the order, what he wishes to take must be placed upon the camels
+directly.  You will stay here."
+
+"No," said Harry coldly; "the Hakim has not done with me yet."
+
+"Well," said the guard, with a grim laugh, "it will be better for you
+than staying here.  Your white skin may be an invitation to the sword if
+the Khalifa does not win the day."
+
+The man turned sharply and left the room without another word.
+
+"Poor old Ibrahim!" said the professor sadly.  "I'd give something to
+see him walk in safe and sound."
+
+"And I,"--"And I," said Frank and the doctor.
+
+"And I say the same.  Heaven help him!" said Harry, "for I owe it to him
+that I am with you, and I would say let us hold out here if I thought it
+was of any use.  But it would be utter folly to resist, and I should not
+like to fight against a man who is doing his duty and has proved himself
+our friend."
+
+Frank rose and went into the next room, where Sam had been in pretty
+good spirits so long as the packing up took his attention, for he was
+eager to get away; but now everything was done and he was left alone,
+waiting and watchful, his spirits had sunk below zero.
+
+He jumped up from where he was seated upon a portmanteau as Frank
+entered.
+
+"Orders to start, sir?" he said eagerly.
+
+"No, Sam, not yet.  We must wait."
+
+"Oh dear!" groaned the man.  "I did think we were going at last, sir.
+Got Mr Harry, the camels all waiting, and the town empty of fighting
+men.  I say, sir, hadn't we better start, and chance it?  Mr Abrams has
+got a camel, and he'll find out which way we're gone.  This waiting is
+the worst of all."
+
+Frank explained to him the position, and the man shook his head
+dismally.
+
+"Then we're only going to chop one prison for another, Ben Eddin?  But
+you surely don't think Mr Abrams has been killed?"
+
+"I only know he has not returned, Sam."
+
+"Oh, but look at him.  Such a fine, long-bearded old Arab as he is.  Oh,
+they wouldn't kill him.  He's gone a bit further, sir, to get some news.
+There, I've been red-hot to start and get away from here, but I don't
+want to go now.  I say, let's stop till he comes back.  We can't go and
+leave him behind."
+
+Frank sighed.
+
+"We are under the Emir's guard," he said, "and when the order to start
+is given we shall have to obey."
+
+"And about now, sir.  It's of no use to pretend to lie down and sleep,"
+said Sam; "I couldn't get a wink."
+
+"No, nor anyone else," replied Frank; "there is nothing to be done but
+watch and wait."
+
+
+
+CHAPTER FORTY ONE.
+
+THE LAST STRUGGLE.
+
+The night glided slowly on, seeming to be as long as several to the
+weary watchers, and during the latter part, when the bustle of
+preparation had long ceased in the women's part of the palace, even the
+horses and camels beyond the dividing wall had grown perfectly quiet.
+
+From time to time, watchful and silent, the officer of the guard had
+been to visit them, looking sharply round and then leaving without a
+word; while after one of his visits Frank and the professor stepped out
+into the open to visit the Sheikh's men, who were seated smoking
+patiently by their crouching camels, waiting for their chief's return.
+
+In this look round and another which followed, Frank found that the men
+of the bodyguard were fully on the alert, and that twice as many
+sentries as usual were about the place.  But all was silent save a low
+murmur from the far-spreading city--a low, strange buzzing burr as if
+from some vast hive, suggesting that the whole place was awake and in
+expectation of something about to happen.
+
+At last there were the faint indications of the coming day, but to the
+watchers even they seemed cold and strange, differing from the early
+dawns they were accustomed to in their journeys across the vast stretch
+of sand.
+
+The light increased, and a strange restlessness, which they could not
+explain attacked the watchers.  The drowsiness that had been felt from
+time to time had completely passed away, and while the Hakim sat looking
+stern and anxious, Sam relieved his feelings by making coffee, feeling
+sure all the time that no one would touch it, and Frank and the
+professor fidgeted about in and out to look at the camel-drivers seated
+as calmly as the quaint animals they tended, and then to see if the
+guard were still at their posts.
+
+But there was no further sign of preparation for a start, and the chief
+of the guard was nowhere to be seen.
+
+Sunrise came, and with it the hurrying of feet, which proved to be a
+large body of men making for the vast expanse of mud-houses nearest to
+the river, where the rough forts, of which Frank had never obtained a
+glimpse, lay.  When the men had passed, the silence became oppressive
+once more, and Frank and his companion went in to find Harry nursing his
+arm, which had taken to throbbing violently.
+
+Just then Sam was ready with the coffee, borne in a steaming brass pot
+in company with a brass tray and so many brass cups.
+
+"You'll have some coffee, gentlemen?" he said respectfully; "it will be
+so refreshing," and setting down the tray he began, though no one
+answered, to fill the little cups.
+
+At that moment there came from far away the dull, short report of a gun,
+and Sam nearly dropped the coffee pot.
+
+"What's that?" he cried, with his eyes starting widely open.
+
+"A heavy gun," said Harry, starting up.  "Then this is what all this
+gathering meant."
+
+He had hardly spoken before in rapid succession two more reports were
+heard, followed by crash after crash, distinct and peculiar, but
+unmistakable.
+
+"Bullets," said Harry, who began to pant with excitement, as he made for
+the door.  "Hark at that, and that!  Oh, it has come at last, and I am a
+prisoner here!"
+
+At that moment a camel was seen passing the window.  One of the Sheikh's
+men was leading it, and directly after Frank uttered a cry of joy, and,
+followed by the professor, ran to the door, just in time to encounter
+Ibrahim, who hurried in, looking haggard and bent.
+
+The next minute he was shaking hands with all, and eagerly took the
+coffee Sam offered to him.  He drank it with avidity, after adding to it
+some cold water from a jug close by.
+
+"Hah!" he ejaculated, and then quickly--
+
+"I went out, Excellencies, to make a long round so as to find out all
+that was to be known.  It has been hard work to avoid being cut off.
+But I have seen much."
+
+"Yes, yes; pray speak out," cried Frank.
+
+"The Khalifa has gathered his forces together, and yesterday evening
+they made their advance away from the town--an enormous army, seeming to
+drive their enemies back."
+
+"Their enemies!" cried Harry excitedly.  "The English and Egyptian
+armies?"
+
+"Yes, Excellency; they are many miles away, by the river side, and there
+are gunboats coming on nearly opposite here."
+
+"At last!" cried Harry.  "Oh, but it has been long, long!  This time
+they will not be too late."
+
+"It seemed last night that the great battle was to take place; but at
+dusk the Khalifa halted his army, thousands upon thousands; their white
+garments seemed to spread for three or four miles, and I felt that at
+last the great time had come."
+
+"Yes, yes?" cried Frank, and the old Sheikh's voice sounded dull and
+strange now, overborne by the distant muttering thunder of the firing,
+which seemed to be on the increase.
+
+"But I would not come back till I could be sure of the tidings I had to
+bring, and I lay out with my camel among the hills over yonder, till
+just at daybreak I could see that the dervish army was in motion, and I
+mounted my camel, keeping to the highest parts I could find.  I made a
+circuit, after seeing the British and Egyptian forces far back by the
+river, and the dervishes in one long, white wave sweeping steadily along
+as if to lap round and drive their foes into the stream."
+
+"And that they will never do!" said Harry proudly.
+
+"I don't know, Excellency.  The dervishes looked so many.  Your friends
+seemed so few.  But I had learned all I wanted, for I could see that the
+great fight was about to begin, and I came with the tidings.  What will
+your Excellencies do?"
+
+He looked at the doctor as he spoke, and the latter replied, "We can do
+nothing while we are here, Ibrahim.  Our orders are to wait till our
+guard gives the word for us to start."
+
+"And then we hope to make for the desert if we can shake our guardians
+off," said the professor.
+
+The old Sheikh was silent, as if deep in thought.
+
+"I know not how to advise," he said.  "If the English are beaten--"
+
+"They will not be!" cried Harry excitedly.
+
+"I pray not, Excellency, but if the day goes against them it would be
+madness to take to the desert, for the dervishes will be swarming
+everywhere, athirst for blood.  We could not escape, and we should be
+safer here.  Even if the Khalifa's army is routed it will be as bad, for
+we should have to mingle with the flying Baggara, while the pursuing
+Egyptians would be as dangerous as the dervishes themselves.  I feel
+that we ought to stay."
+
+"But our orders are, to be ready to start at any time," said the doctor
+gravely.
+
+"Then, Excellency, we must accept our fate.  We shall be taken to
+Khartoum, where the beaten force will rally and defend it to the last."
+
+"Not rally here, Ibrahim?" said Frank eagerly.
+
+"No, Excellency.  This is no place to defend.  The well-drilled troops
+would sweep through it after their heavy guns and scatter the mud-houses
+into heaps.  No, the dervishes will hoist their standards at Khartoum.
+But we must make a brave effort to avoid being shut in there."
+
+He said no more, for there seemed to be no more to say, and the desire
+of all was to listen to the distant thunder, which had been increasing
+as he spoke, telling plainly enough of the terrible battle going on,
+while suddenly, and as if close at hand, there came the heavy reports of
+guns away to the east.
+
+"The gunboats," said Ibrahim quietly, "and the forts answering back.
+This is the day that the fate of the Soudan must be known."
+
+How the time went no one could tell in that wildly exciting, agonising
+time of doubt.  The firing from miles away to the north continued, and
+the cannonading from the river was maintained, but there was no news of
+how the fight progressed, and a feeling of despair was attacking the
+prisoners when all at once the firing ceased.
+
+What did it mean?  That the collected army of the Khalifa was immense
+they were well aware.  Had it swept on and on in the great white wave
+the Sheikh had described, vastly overlapping the Anglo-Egyptian force,
+and, curling round its flanks, achieved the Baggara Emir's threat of
+sweeping the infidels into the river, now cumbered with the slain?
+
+For the silence was ominous; even the gunboats had ceased firing, and
+their guard had made no sign.
+
+In the hurried discussion which ensued, the professor drew attention to
+this; but it was repelled with contempt by Harry.
+
+"What of that?" he said.  "The forts were so much mud, with a few poorly
+served guns.  They have been silenced, and there is nothing more to fire
+at.  Even now the boats may have landed men who are marching into the
+town."
+
+"But the firing on the field!" said Frank excitedly.  "Oh, if we only
+knew!"
+
+Almost as he spoke the Emir's officer came in, and there was a look of
+triumph in his eyes as he said to the Sheikh--
+
+"There will be no journey to-day, O Sheikh, for the enemies of Allah are
+being swept away.  The Emir my master will be back before night, and all
+my prisoners are safe."
+
+He left them, and they saw that he went in the direction of the women's
+part of the palace, evidently to give his good news there and set the
+poor creatures at rest; but he could hardly have reached their quarters
+before the firing broke out again, certainly nearer and fiercer than
+before.
+
+"He spoke too soon!" cried Harry excitedly.  "We shall beat the savage
+wretches yet!"
+
+The firing rose and fell, and rose again, and to the hearers the
+suspense grew unbearable, Frank and his brother feeling that at all
+risks they must try by some means to get tidings of how the battle
+fared.
+
+Again there was a cessation and a long interval of silence.
+
+Once more the dull thudding of the artillery was heard above the roar of
+rifle volleys and the snarling rattle of the machine guns; and when this
+ceased there was a hurried sound, mingled with wailing, within the walls
+of the Emir's house; two of the guards passed quickly by the windows of
+the Hakim's quarters, and the Sheikh's men were seen hurrying towards
+the door, where they were met by the chief of the guard, who rushed by
+them, to shout in a stern voice to Ibrahim--
+
+"Quick! to your camels!  We leave here now."
+
+That was enough.  No trumpet-blast could have announced in clearer tones
+that the fight was won, and as he passed out a strange murmurous roar
+arose from the streets of the great mud city, a mingling of excited
+voices, those of the fugitives and those of the more resolute who
+elected to stay.
+
+There was a stern look in the officer's eyes as he stood, drawn sword in
+hand, looking on while the final preparations were made, and within ten
+minutes the prisoners were mounted on horse and camel and assembled in
+the well-guarded court, where the women and slaves of the Emir's
+household were already waiting.
+
+Directly after the long train moved out through the gateway with their
+watchful guards; and it was none too soon, for before they had passed
+down a couple of streets, a yelling mob of savage-looking armed men made
+for the Emir's palace, spreading through to loot and carry off
+everything that took their eye.
+
+It was the same throughout, for the first deed of about three thousand
+of the dervish army which had fled, routed from the field, was to make
+for the palaces of the Khalifa, and those of his chief Emirs, on plunder
+bent, while, where they dared, the ordinary dwellers of the city joined
+in to bear off the garnered stores of corn.
+
+Frank and his companions knew nothing of this as they were hurried along
+through the tortuous ways of the vast stretch of hovels, tents, and mud
+huts, till they reached the outskirts, and then the wide-stretching
+plain, where they had ample opportunity of learning the truth.  For on
+every side, streaming towards Khartoum, where it lay whitened in the
+distance, were the routed dervishes, some in troops, displaying military
+order, but the greater part scattered and flying for their lives on
+horses, camels, and on foot.
+
+They had need--for the Emir's officer had stayed too long in his blind
+belief in the success of the Khalifa's troops--the avenging forces were
+close behind, and the dervishes were falling fast, dotting the plain
+with their white garments, while riderless horses and camels careered
+wildly here and there.
+
+The race was for Khartoum--the efforts of the Sirdar's troops, horse,
+foot, and artillery, to cut them off, and it was not long before the
+English party grasped the fact that it would be a marvel if they reached
+the distant city alive in the midst of the hurrying crowd.
+
+But the Emir's bodyguard worked well, keeping their charge together,
+hurrying on the camels, encouraging the women, and twice over forming up
+and attacking bands of their fellow fighting men who approached
+menacingly, seeing in the flying party of the Emir's household ample
+opportunities for securing plunder, but only to be beaten off.
+
+Any attempt at escape would only have been to invite recapture.  Frank
+and his brother, well mounted as they were, like the guard, on a couple
+of the Emir's magnificent Arabs, could have galloped off with ease, but
+the slower going camels on which their friends rode could not have kept
+up with them, and even if an attempt had been made where were they to
+go?  It was to run the gauntlet amongst the relics of the flying army,
+to risk being cut down by their friends before they had time to explain
+that they were not what they seemed.
+
+Harry seemed to have forgotten his injured arm, and he and Frank rode
+together, helping the officer of the guard, though it was only in
+keeping their own party together, and encouraging the followers of the
+Sheikh, who were losing their calmness in the wild rout, with the guns
+of the horse artillery sending forth grape wherever a knot of the enemy
+hung together, and the cavalry, white and black, charging here and
+there.
+
+It was while Frank was cheering on Sam, and then helping a dismounted
+man to a seat on a baggage camel, that the officer rode up, meeting
+Harry, who turned to him at once, to address him in the keen, commanding
+tones of the British officer, as he pointed towards the open plains and
+hills.
+
+"You can never get to Khartoum," he said.  "Make for the desert."
+
+"Yes," said the officer calmly, as he fully grasped the position; for
+rapidly passing their left flank, and gradually cutting off their way,
+they saw a regiment of the Egyptian cavalry tearing along, riding down
+scores of the dervishes as they went.
+
+It seemed to be their only chance, and the two young men joined with
+their leader in heart and soul to hurry the camel train along.
+
+Turning then at right-angles, the leading man made for the shelter of
+some hills a couple of miles to the west, and as the camels were hurried
+along, there seemed for a few minutes a prospect of getting right away.
+
+"From Scylla into Charybdis," cried Harry bitterly.
+
+"But can we do better?" said Frank excitedly.
+
+"There is no better," said Harry sadly, "in a rout.  It is every man for
+himself now.  No one has a friend."
+
+They rode on as fast as they could get the groaning and complaining
+camels along, and were rapidly nearing the hills, when a warning cry
+came from their leader, in answer to which the guard turned back,
+leaving the camels to proceed alone, for the Emir's officer had suddenly
+become aware of the fact that a band of at least a hundred of the
+mounted dervishes in full retreat had swooped round, and were dashing at
+them, certainly with no peaceful intent.
+
+"It's all over, Frank, lad," cried Harry.  "Let's get alongside Morris
+and Landon.  They may make us prisoners, but the wretches' blood is up,
+and their only thoughts are to plunder and slay.  Try and save them;
+here the wretches come."
+
+"Look, look!" cried Frank, for from their right front some four hundred
+yards away there was a gleam of steel, a glimpse of white helmets, and
+an opening outline of galloping horses racing out of a hollow.
+
+The evolution was brilliant, and before it seemed possible, the line of
+horsemen with lowered spears were upon the advancing dervish band, which
+had already got amongst the Emir's guard, fighting and dying in defence
+of their charge.
+
+A minute?  More likely half a minute, and a couple of squadrons of
+British cavalry had ridden through the dervishes, leaving the earth
+cumbered with dead and wounded men, whose horses galloped wildly here
+and there.
+
+On went the cavalry, wheeled, and came back, cutting down all who
+resisted, the major portion of the enemy flying for their lives to east
+and north, for from the west a second squadron of the British horse was
+coming up at a gallop, a detachment checking and capturing the whole
+camel train.
+
+How it came about Frank hardly knew, but somehow, mounted as he was, he
+found himself with his brother close to where the Emir's officer, with a
+dozen of his men, had hacked their way from among a crowd of dervishes,
+just as the British cavalry had wheeled and come back, cutting up the
+assailants of the Emir's guards, and the next minute had nearly been
+Frank's last, for an English lancer rode in the _melee_ at the Emir's
+officer, who must have fallen had not a quick blow from Frank's sword
+turned the lance aside.
+
+The man passed on, but an officer dashed in, sword in hand, and Frank
+would have been laid low but for his brother's act.
+
+For Harry turned his horse and rode full at the advancing officer, their
+chargers coming together as he shouted wildly--
+
+"Halt!  Halt!  English--English!"
+
+The officer turned upon him fiercely.
+
+"What?--Who are you?"
+
+"Frere, of Gordon's," shouted Harry.
+
+"But that black?"
+
+"My brother!"
+
+"Yes," cried Frank, in honest old English.  "I was trying to save this
+brave man's life."
+
+"Then don't black your face first, youngster, next time," cried the
+officer, with a laugh, as he turned to find fresh food for his steel.
+
+But the enemy were flying fast, scattered, and leaving half their force
+upon the field.  The recall was ringing out, and shortly after the
+English squadrons were making for Khartoum, with their prisoners and
+prizes, the former including the remains of the Emir's bodyguard, their
+captain and six of his followers, wounded to a man.
+
+That night Frank and his companions rested in Khartoum.
+
+It was the day of the oft-told scene when the Sirdar and his staff were
+gathered around with all the thrilling pomp of a military funeral, to
+pay the long-deferred honour at their hero's grave.
+
+The chaplain had read the solemn words, the volleys had been fired, to
+waken the echoes from where they had slumbered among the ruins of
+Khartoum, and the victorious general and his brave staff had paid their
+last duties of respect.
+
+As the combined flags floated and waved together with a soft rustle in
+the desert wind, the general and his officers drew back from the hero's
+grave and then stood fast, as a thin, worn-looking, sun-burned man in
+tattered white cotton garments, and bearing his left arm in a sling,
+stepped forward--a dervish slave in dress, but with the bearing of a
+British officer, and closely followed by a black.
+
+For the moment it seemed like an intrusion, and there was a movement
+amongst the Sirdar's guard as if to force them back.  But an officer
+raised his hand, and then whispered to another at his side--
+
+"Gordon's friend; a prisoner with him at his death."
+
+"Yes, but the black fellow?" said the other, in the same low tone.
+
+"Pst!  Tell you after--brother--came in disguise--to seek him out."
+
+Then all stood watching in the midst of a painful silence as they saw
+the rescued victim of the Mahdi's reign of terror sink softly upon his
+knees by his leader's grave and lay upon it a leaf freshly taken from a
+neighbouring palm, while his companion stood reverently close behind.
+
+A minute had elapsed, and then those present drew back, and a hand was
+laid upon the kneeling man's shoulder.
+
+The latter rose slowly, and he who had silently warned him that it was
+time to go heard him murmur--
+
+"Goodbye, brave soldier and truest friend.  I did my best.  But it is
+not Goodbye: for you will be always with us--one of Britain's greatest
+sons--your name will never die."
+
+Then turning to his companion with a faint, sad smile, he said softly--
+
+"Our country was slow to move, but at last it has done its duty well.
+Mine was a bitter time of waiting, but it is as nothing now, for I have
+been here to see."
+
+He turned and looked up quickly, for there was a sharp fluttering sound
+as of wings.
+
+"The British flag!" he said, with a look of pride lighting up his deeply
+bronzed face.  "There, Frank, lad, our work is done, and the way is
+open.  Now for rest--for the home I never hoped to see again."
+
+A low murmur of admiration ran along the ranks of the British soldiers,
+officers and men, as the brothers walked slowly back to where a group
+was standing, one of whom was a good-looking, sun-browned Hakim in snowy
+turban and flowing robes, attended by a swarthy man in a _fez_--a man in
+white garb with a very English face, and just behind him a venerable
+Sheikh.  For all who were present now had learned the facts, and as the
+brothers passed, one of the officers of the Sirdar's guard exclaimed--
+
+"By George! and yet there are people who say we have no heroes now!"
+
+THE END.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+End of Project Gutenberg's In the Mahdi's Grasp, by George Manville Fenn
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